Organ CDs with really deep bass
A little off topic, but since the interest is pipe organ music and recordings, there is an excellent archive of the npr show Pipedreams at the pipdreams.org website. You can search by country and region (for USA) and organ to discover pipdreams episodes featuring your favorite instruments. Bill in Ga |
My spouse is pretty tolerant of me playing Orchestral works at loud volumes but is absolutely allergic to Organ music at any volume. It reminds her of church and since she grew up in the Boston area having to endure CCD from one of the Priests later exposed in the abuse cases dramatized in the movie Spotlight she just gets immediate revulsion at the sound of the Organ; therefore my Organ music collection is pretty skimpy. One of my favorite lps in College was E. Power Biggs playing Bach at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. The bass in the Passacaglia and Fugue in DMinor would threaten to eject the woofer cone of my Advent 3 bookshelf speakers. I tried to find that same album in CD and it hadn’t been digitalized at the time (there were other recordings of Biggs in the same work but they just didn’t match my aural memory). Even before meeting my wife in my forties (20th anniversary tomorrow!) I had never developed a taste for organ music after Bach. Widor and his ilk basically give me a headache, and I’ve delved into the Organ Music of Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Brahms, but this music is obscure for a reason, imo. |
Tk 12 of Schauerte SYR14130 is what I imagine to be dinosaur dreaming sounds. No living creature snores with the rhythm, depth, power, and wind volume. Another Passau CD to look for is titled Dom Zu Passau - Edgar Krapp Eurodisc 6100 031-231. Tk 4 is Bach BMV532 and this will warm the sweet spot of your deepest driver. Tk 6 is Reger Intr&Passacaglia which keeps rumbling without its impact being diluted by excessive keyboard accompanient.
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2 SACD from base2music that are affordable and contain serious organ music which is recorded with impeccable quality; 1. Jean-Paul Imbert - Passacaglia. An hour of woofer calisthenics can be tiresome so Track 9, attributed to Virgil Fox, is appropriately titled Come Sweet Death. 2. Percy Whitlock Organ Sonata. Plenty of pedal bass accompanied by variety. Track 6 will shake headphones to pieces. |
The mentioned earlier, Jean Guillou, organist; Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky, 3 Dances from Petrouchka; Dorian is also available on SACD (stereo layer only). A mandatory purchase. Keep your hand on the volume control. Ideal for temporary hearing loss. --------- The CD, The Organ Club 75th Anniversary, track 6, REGCD155, has 5 minutes of generous bass. Rest of CD is uninspiring. Nothing compares to the SACD above. |
@darkmatter. Virtually every track has serious low bass. The last 2 tracks on Cd 2 might be notable. The recording emphasizes the deep bass, the midrange and treble quiet and calm. It’s good listening at night: the deep bass provides total body massage. Of course you’ll need a loudspeaker that can do 20 hz in room. |
That Fox recording is a lot of fun, and it does have a good deal of bass. I found the CD to be a little dry, but the D2D (I have the Crystal Clear) is pretty good, even though it has a few wrong notes in it that were cleaned up on the CD. Fox was a master of using all the colors available on an organ, and while some organist friends of mine find them a little too much, others admire them. Closest thing to him right now in this regard is probably Jean Guillou, IMHO. |
"Having been recorded over a three day period in Aug. 1977 at the Garden Grove, Ca. community church on the newly installed Ruffati organ (selected by Fox for this project) it is claimed to be the first ever digital recording made in the US. I'm assuming redbook standards had not even been set by this time as it is recorded at 16 bits/37500 hz (thus, my remark about provenance)." acresverde-As a SoCal native, interesting fact. Just a casual fan of pipe organ with a few cool LP's of historic performances. To my biased ears, organ LP's are like a great R&R,Classic,Jazz... pressings. No NAS/streaming here, only a "good enough" CD/DAC playback setup. Satisfying but not mind-blowing which a few REALLY nice setups are capable of. |
I guess it's possible that the organ recordings cognescenti might thumb their noses at this particular recording because of its provenance (which is the only reason I can think of that would explain the failure of its mention thus far) and the OP has indicated that Virgil Fox is not to be found in the pantheon of his personal favorites, but "The Digital Fox" direct to disc on Ultragroove records (not to be confused with its exact counterpart "The Fox Touch" on Crystal Clear) has it all IMHO. The immediacy and seeming effortlessness that D2D does so well along with a staggering magnificence and capture of space, it is sonic bombast at its finest and I must confess that I find myself wallowing in it whenever it hits the platter. I find that the CD version does not fair nearly as well as the vinyl, BTW. I can see where some might be put off a little by the perceived schmaltziness that Fox is capable of but his style communicates to me that he is in charge and complete command of the music where others seem to be somewhat timid and maybe even a tad cowed by the sheet music in front of them. Possibly restrained or wooden would be a better choice of words here. Having been recorded over a three day period in Aug. 1977 at the Garden Grove, Ca. community church on the newly installed Ruffati organ (selected by Fox for this project) it is claimed to be the first ever digital recording made in the US. I'm assuming redbook standards had not even been set by this time as it is recorded at 16 bits/37500 hz (thus, my remark about provenance). Counterintuitively for me, I find it more compelling than its analog D2D counterpart "The Fox Touch" in that it exceeds the former with greater palpability, dynamics and its ability to leap from the medium, so to speak. Selections from Bach, Fraunck, Dupre, Widor, Vierne, Alain, Gigout and Jongen are on offer so, almost certainly, something for every ear and sensibility. I bought mine new on release 40 years ago and would expect the availability of good quality copies to be quite limited by now. But certainly worth a look, I would say. |
An old thread but it would be interesting to compile a list of Classical Organ CDs with deep bass content, one of my favourites is Organ Encores with Ian Tracey at the Liverpool Cathedral https://www.discogs.com/Ian-Tracey-Liverpool-Encores/release/5746614 Track 12 Fantasia On British Sea Songs has some real deep and solid bass down to and below 20Hz which pressurised my room rattling windows etc. |
When I do a search on the internet I often stumble over a so-called "Soundhound Organ CD", but it was never officially released. It was just a CD-R. Then I read someting about an official CD named "Organ Fantasia" by an artist named Christian Elliott. These two records are supposed to have the same content. Can anyone confirm that? I asked Mr. Elliott directly but he doesn’t know. |
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ken_andrew SACDs generally sound better because of the greater effort required to record them.Huh? Please explain why it is more difficult to record for an SACD than it would be for any other format. |
SACDs generally sound better because of the greater effort required to record them. Actual bass output depends on the material played: (1) Ian Tracey- Grand Pieces Symphoniques on Chandos is subtle (listen to the bass fluttering on tk 2), and with generally restrained bass (2) Ian Tracey - Fantaisie Triomphale on Chandos is rich in bass tones and often bombastic - same organ as above (3) Jean-Paul Imbert - Cesar Franck on Base2. Tracks 1 & 2, will delight bass freaks, however the overall pace is a little slow. |
The complete organ works, Edward Cuthbert Bairstow, organist Jackson, York Minster organ Mirabilis, MRCD 902. Tracks 1 and 7 step down the pedal notes eventually resulting in several seconds of profound bass. Do not increase the volume after 1 min on track 1 or your speakers will be damaged just after 3 min. As the booklet warns, Bairstow liked the quiet bits, quiet and the loud bits, loud. |
There's a great recording of a Gerhard Weinberger concert consisting of short Liszt and Bach pieces that's called "Concert at Passenau". It was recorded on the Passenau organ in Germany (at the time the largest organ in the world). I bought a CD on a visit to Passenau Cathedral, but I believe it's also available on SACD and - played at volume - it will cause seasickness. Marty |
Jean Guillou, Vol.#4 Bach Organ set (of 5 cd's) on Dorian. 1st selection, 1st 5 minutes or so. very deep and very clear bass notes. i took this cd to a dealer to test out a $50,000 pair of very well regarded speakers. i did NOT turn the volume up all that high either. long story short, the speakers distorted several times. you need a great amplifier and a very competent pair of speakers to play this cd properly. just to reiterate, you don't have to crank up the system to enjoy this cd, but you will want to "hear" the actual notes being played. |
I love your thread here. I also love the Mussorgsky and the Murray recordings you list. Both have bass that goes deep. The Murray is around 12Hz and the Guillou is 8.8Hz and is on track 2 for the footsteps of Gnomus. Lots of good bass that is well recorded. I made a list of other recordings I love that have below 16Hz bass. Pomp & Pipes Fredrick Fennell Reference Recording RR-58CD Michael Murray, Bach Methuen, Telarc CD-80049 Fantastic organ but the deep bass is suppressed some and needs to be boosted about 8db for best balance. Mormon Tabernacle Organ Longhurst, Philips 412-217-2 Jongen: Symphonie Murray, Telarc CD-80096 Encores a la francais Murray, Telarc CD-80104 Dupre, Rheinberger Murray, Telarc CD-80136 Buxtehude series form NAXOS Love the music and the recordings are good. Cathedral of St. John Murray, Telarc CD-80169 - The cathedral has a LONG resonant time that muddies up some of the deep bass but it is still good. I agree on the Joyce Jones Motette CD 11491 stated earlier. Star of Wonder Reference Recording RR-21CD O Come all ye Faithful. Deep but not really even note to note. Bach on the Biggest Atlantic City Convention Hall ACCHOS/CD/02 - This was an awesome organ!! 449 ranks, 8Hz. The recording is from 1957 and has hiss but it is really fun. Truncated slightly on the deep bass but DEEP and STRONG!!! Dont Forget Richard Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra on various Telarc, I have it on a sampler and time warp CD-80106 8.5Hz opening pipe!! |
Organist David Drury has 3 CDs on ABC Classics label. "Music for a Grand Organ" and "Pomp&Circumstance" feature the Sydney Town Hall organ and have occaisonal infra bass. "On a Grand Scale" uses the Melbourne Town Hall organ and frequently reproduces the lower bass pipes (not ultimately as deep as Sydney) and sustained bass is very common. All 3 Cds are worthwhile. Not as exciting as Guillou or Felix but better than Hurford. |
The pipe organ sampler CD "King of instruments: A listener's guide to the art and science of recording the organ" contains several artitistically and sonically spectacular performances, e.g. that of Maurice Duruflé's Scherzo op. 2 played by Todd Wilson. The final chord concludes with something that makes any two-way bass reflex loudspeaker wave the white flag of surrender. Try it... but take care. |
Texasdave recommends 11-23-04 Peter Hurford who has several CDs on Argo/Decca. Peter Hurford, Romantic Organ Music Vol II (is superior to Vol I). The more common Vol I, is still good. Peter Hurford, Hindemith Organ Sonatas, Argo 417 159-2 is excellent and worth seeking out. Like most readers and posters here, I happen to enjoy Guillou, Murray, and Hurford. I have to buy them on web without auditioning first. I even doubt if their sonic benefits can be heard on the systems available in most CD stores. Please can someone who owns all their CDs, rank them in a purchase order for each artist. |
Let's revive this one for a second, I just listened to the recent Ondine SACD of the Philadelphia Orchestra with Olivier Latry playing the Saint Saens Organ Symphony, the Poulenc Organ Concerto and the Barber Toccata Festiva. Latry is a virtuoso organist, and simply seems to love the 32 foot stops on the instrument. Astounding bass in the last octave, down into the teens, I believe, with tremendous volume and power down there. Not sure if the CD layer does as well, but in SACD it is amazing. And the performances are very good as well all around--the Barber is a show-stopper. |
I agree with Rcprince about the RR CD "Felix Hell--Organ Sensation." (I think he's the one who turned me on to this CD.) Felix is terrific and so is the recording. On some systems this one may seem to have almost too much deep bass. Another one I recently acquired that has a seemingly bottomless bottom end is The Sonatas of Julius Reubke (inclulding the Sonata for Organ "The 94th Psalm") played by Jean Guillou on the big Aeolian Skinner organ of Trinity Church, NYC, on a Dorian CD. A very impressive recording of this splendid organ, with wonderful deep bass. |
The RR CD "Felix Hell--Organ Sensation" has a number of pieces where he uses the full 32 foot stops--tremendous bass. Try the Guillmant and Vierne pieces--the bass goes well below 32Hz, probably down in the high teens, low 20s. Not a particularly reverberant venue, but excellent playing (this kid is a true phenomenon) and, as always with RR, well-recorded with plenty of power. |
Here's another one that belongs in this thread: Peter Hurford playing Mendelssohn, 3 Sonatas and 3 Preludes & Fugues, on the Ratzeburg Cathedral organ, Germany. This is an Argo CD recorded in 1984, and the engineer (Simon Eadon) deserves credit for a superb job: the organ, a large modern instrument (4 manuals, two 32' pedal pipes), is recorded with excellent clarity, but with exceptional deep bass. The booklet contains the following statement (which is certainly unusual for Argo/Decca/London): "Technical Note: Organists and Audiophiles will be interested to know that special attention was paid to recording the massive pedal department of this exciting organ as accurately as possible, whilst at the same time retaining the clarity of the upper-work. Bottom D at 32 pitch represents a fundamental frequency of 19Hz, with sub-harmonics below this. This recording should provide a challenging test and excellent demonstration for lovers of organ music and hi-fi alike." Hurford is one of the best organists around, and he uses this same organ extensively in his complete Bach organ works cycle for Decca/London (but not with the incredibly deep bass heard here, which literally makes my windows shake and rattle). An excellent CD, strongly recommended for any organ buff. |
I recently stumbled across a CD that belongs in this thread: Ocean Grove: French Spectaculars on the Great Ocean Grove Organ, Gordon Turk, organist, a Dorian CD recorded in 1998. I haven't found anyone who does a better job of recording organs than Craig Dory of Dorian Records, and he did this one. This is a very large organ (4 manuals, 152 ranks, 9,000 pipes, four or five 32' pipes), and this CD is one of the best recordings of a big organ I've ever heard: clear, well focused, wide dynamic range, full frequency range, plenty of natural-sounding, floor-shaking deep bass. This one will give your subwoofers a real workout, and if you're looking for a lease-breaker, it should do the trick. An exceptional recording. |
Late in the thread, but I wanted to mention that the Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ Society put out a fundraiser CD of the organ - not a blockbuster **BUT** it has a recording of the solo 64' stops! I don't know of any other recording that has this. Just have your hand on the volume control when you try it out...it is available on their website. |
I have a very old Mono LP titled "Liebert takes Richmond". It is non classical music, such as you might hear at an ice skating rink, played on a very large Wurlitzer, that gives meaning to the term "all the bells and whistles".. A great recording but technically outdated, and my copy is worn out. Does anyone have a suggestion along these lines? J.S Bach need not apply. |
There are many books written on pipe construction, some very technical. Take a look at the Organ Historical Society Website, www.ohscatalog.org. They have quite a few books available on-line. You might want to call them for a recommendation. A subbass is a foundation flue stop usually found in the Pedal Organ. Typically, it is a 16' stop which produces a 32Hz frequency at Low C. The Posaunen is a reed stop sounding like a Trumpet or Trombone in the lower registers. At 32' a Posaunen will have a relatively weak fundamental frequency at 16 Hz, Low C. But the beating of the reed at this frequency provides power to the full ensemble or "full organ" I haven't heard this CD but it sounds like a small scale organ, voiced in the Northern German style. Clarity of tone is more important here than really deep bass, especially for contrapuntal music like that of Bach. I found real inspiration while listening to organ recordings and then listening to organ music. The clincher for me was music from the French Romantic Period of the 19th century (Franck, Widor, Guilmant, Vierne). Big sound, large instruments, and glorious music. Not very popular though! |
Inspired by this thread, I picked up a copy of "The Uncommon Bach", Joan Lippincott and George Ritchie, organists. The performance uses the Fritts-Richards organ in St. Alphonsus Parich Church in Seattle. The instrument has a 32' posaunen, a 16' subbass and a 16' posaunen. This is a DTS 5.1 surround disc on the PGM label web site is http://www.pgm.com. Can anyone recommend a good book as a primer for pipe organ construction and terminology for a non-musician? What is the difference between a subbass and a posaunen? |
I have the Pentatone "Toccata" sacd referenced by Lenardd. It was recorded on the De Rijckere organ, Oostkerk, the Netherlands. It is a nice recording, to be sure, but not a bass powerhouse. The largest pipes are 16 footers, I think. Thanks to Texasdave for this thread. I have been in search of organ music to give my Bag End Infra-18 a workout. It's been getting a little pudgy. |
Have you seen this title from PentaTone? http://www.pentatonemusic.com/pags/toccatadef2.htm It is available at www.acousticsounds.com if you are interested. You may also want to check out http://www.sa-cd.net/search.php and enter "organ" in the search box and select "title" for your option. You will get a lot of SACD titles that you may be interested in. |
