2. music
  3. 1066885166

Organ CDs with really deep bass

I'd like to request and share information with other classical-music audiophiles who are interested in classical pipe organ CDs that are exceptionally well recorded and have really deep bass. I have a couple of recommendations for now, and I'd be interested in hearing recommendations from any of you who are into classical pipe organ CDs that permit your state-of-the-art subwoofer to strut its stuff. (Please, no arguments/diatribes here about analog vs. digital, LP vs. CD. Plenty of room for that elsewhere.)

1. Jean Guillou, organist; Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky, 3 Dances from Petrouchka; Dorian CD DOR-90117. D. B. Keele, who used to write speaker and subwoofer reviews for Audio, used this as one of his references for testing subwoofers and called it "one of my favorite bass demos." It has potent levels of really deep bass. As organ buffs know, most medium-to-large pipe organs have at least one (and sometimes more) 32-foot pipe (usually but not always a pedal pipe); this pipe has a fundamental of 16 Hz. This is one of the few recordings I know of that contains this note. An amazing, reference-quality recording. If you'd like to get evicted and are looking for a lease-breaker, this CD played on a good system with a first-class sub should do the trick. (All of the Dorian CDs I have tried of Guillou playing European organs of his design (three of them) have reference-quality sound and seemingly unlimited bottom-end response.)

2. Michael Murray, organist; The Ruffati Organ in Davies Symphony Hall: A Recital of Works by Bach, Messiaen, Dupre, Widor & Franck; Telarc CD CD-80097. Although not as colorful as the Guillou/Dorian CD above, this excellent CD also has prodigious deep bass that will give your sub plenty to do. To my ears, Telarc does a better job of recording Michael Murray (one of the best organists of our day) playing pipe organs than it does of recording orchestras. There are a number of superb Telarc CDs of Murray playing various interesting organs. This is not my favorite overall, but it is outstanding for deep bass.

Now let's hear from you guys. I'm all ears. Thanks.
texasdave
rcprince
3,070 posts
 
Get the new Reference Recordings "Organ Sensation" with the 17 year old prodigy Felix Hell. About the best recorded and performed organ disc I've ever heard, with Guillmant and Liszt showpieces that will literally shake your house down. I have a private recording that the man who designed my speakers made (he also builds organs) of him when he was 13 years old; the kid is a true phenomenon.

The Telarc disc you mention is pretty good, though Murray, while technically a great organist, to my taste lacks the fire and excitement some others (such as Hell, Christopher Herrick, Virgil Fox and Guillou) had or have. Since Murray never makes a mistake, though, he was the ideal organist for Telarc, particularly when they recorded direct-to-disc in the early days of the label. Delos also has a number of fine organ recordings; the one of David Higgs playing the inaugural recital on the Meyerson Center organ in Dallas is terrific, with plenty of bass on the Liszt BACH fugue. Finally (for now), the Dorian recording of Guillou playing the Jongen Symphonie Concertante has plenty of work on the 32 foot stops, and is a fine recording and performance.
rcprince
3,070 posts
 
Another one with the Ruffati organ in Davies Hall is the Saint Saens Organ Symphony with (who else) Guillou and DeWaart on Philips. The second movement has some true 32 foot stops used throughout, although softer stops are used, not the Bombarde stops, so the sound is gentle. Interestingly, I don't think Guillou used those stops on his recording of the same symphony on Dorian (coupled with the Jongen mentioned earlier). The DeWaart disc also has Guillou playing the most unusual version of the Widor Allegro from his 6th organ symphony you'll ever hear, with a cadenza of his own at the end which a TAS reviewer said should be accompanied by the sound of Widor spinning in his grave! A couple of minutiae--(1) the Ruffati organ does not use pipes for its 32 foot stops, but rather an electronic tone generator (many of my organist friends prefer that, in that pipes of that size are tough to keep on pitch (what little pitch you can hear from those notes) and can sometimes shudder and create a racket), as in many current organs such as the one near me at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark; and (2) the Dorian disc with the Saint Saens and Jongen is a very good example of the adjustable acoustics used in the Meyerson Center Hall--the Jongen was recorded with the acoustics set to be more reverberant, as it's more a concerto featuring the organ, while the Saint Saens has the acoustics a bit drier in comparison, as the organ is part of the orchestra in that piece. On a good system, you'll hear that difference very easily.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
It won't shake your house, but a Multichannel SACD, Sony SS87983, E Power Biggs playing Bach Toccatas and Fugues is interesting, because he is playing four organs located in various places in the Cathedral of Freiburg. His interpretation of these old warhorses as antiphonal compositions really works. I don't think this was ever realized before because it is unusual to have a setup where you can play more than one organ at a time. As I understand it, each organ has its own keyboard and can be played by itself, but there is also a "master" keyboard which can play any or all of the four organs.
rcprince
3,070 posts
 
Eldartford, another SACD, relatively unreported on, with both good sound (and some deep bass) and a good performance is the Linn SACD of the Poulenc Organ Concerto (Gillian Weir is the organist). Shows off SACD's ability to capture ambience well, and a fun piece to listen to. Haven't heard it in multichannel, but I'd think it would lend itself well to that. I'm going to check my collection at home for more, but I will note that Christopher Herrick's recordings on Hyperion are uniformly excellent (his Organ Fireworks series, while not his favorite recordings for them, are a lot of fun and show off a lot of bass, and his Bach recordings are my favorites), and the Priory series of great European church organs is also terrific, with some better than others but generally very well recorded. Those interested in organ recordings of all sorts should check out the Gothic Records catalog (I assume they have a website under their name) and the Organ Historical Society website at catalog@organsociety.org.
More to discover