A Christmas organ CD from Bethlehem?
Strange but true, as the Church of the
Nativity there has recently installed
a new Rieger organ. It follows the pattern
of most other Rieger organs; Frenchy
reeds, rather hard mixtures, rock-solid
wind etc. Here the nomenclature is in
Italian, but the tonal aesthetic is
unaffected. If anything this organ seems
slightly more French than Rieger's usual
fare, and, aided by a good acoustic,
it sounds warm and quite convincing
despite some occasional tuning problems.
Surprisingly the organ has electro-pneumatic
action for the Grand Organo, Recitativo
and Pedale, only the Positivo behind
the alter having its own mechanical
action keyboard. This troubles me; whatever
the artistic limitations of Rieger's
tonal philosophy as I see them, their
mechanical actions on large organs are
models of world-class engineering. Rieger
is one of the very few organ builders
in the world who don't resort to electric
coupling on their big organs, but can
still make a very playable action.
Here I have the feeling
that perhaps the organ in Bethlehem
isn't shown to best advantage. The choice
of repertoire makes for mostly un-inspiring
listening; Guilmant's tedious Offertoires,
unknown but unadventurous Italian offerings,
a barely digestible chunk of Reger.
Interestingly, Boellmann's Offertoire
is more interesting, suggesting again
that the much over-played Suite Gothique
isn't his best work. Fleury's and Mulet's
works are also more interesting, the
Mulet is well known of course, but,
as with the rest of the programme, they
receive leaden and boring performances
from Elisabeth Roloff, a German-born
former student of Ralph Downes no less!
She is now head of the organ department
at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and
Drama.
Interesting for the
novelty value then, but don't expect
it to liven up your Christmas.
Chris Bragg