This release is a bit special for a number of reasons, but the first of
these is outlined in a preface by Dieter Oehms, founder of the Oehms
Classics label. His anecdotes about visiting Himmerod monastery as a child
are the perfect way to introduce the building as it was before its
restoration between 1952 and 1960. The Oehms family includes generations of
organ builders, and this instrument therefore has a prominent position with
the label. This release also celebrates Dieter Oehms’ “50 Years in the Music
Sector”.
Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna already has some distinguished recordings
under her belt, is winner of prestigious awards and has a busy international
performing career. Her previous album for Oehms Classics is a French
programme with some pretty commercial repertoire, stating with Widor’s
ubiquitous
Toccata and ending with Fauré’s
Pavane.
Apkalna’s Bach opens with a monumentally impressive
Toccata and Fugue in
D minor, which introduces us both to the fine sonorities of the Klais
organ and the huge Himmerod acoustic. After that grand opening Apkalna moves
the music along with a swift energy, delivering a pretty spectacular
performance. There are so many recordings of Bach’s organ works around that
I’m not going to get into comparisons here. I think we can be pretty sure
Bach himself would have approved, once he’d recovered his wig and
stockings.
Cases are made for the selection of these pieces in terms of minimalistic
techniques, though this argument can be applied to a great deal of Baroque
music. The pedal tones at the start of the
Pastorale BWV 590 for
instance, and the repetitive pattern of the
Passacaglia BWV 582.
These are all familiar techniques and forms of course, and Apkalna is by no
means adapting her performances to emphasise Bach’s position in musical
history as a proto- minimalist. These are all extremely fine performances
made in a superb location, and we are invited to listen with new ears. The
Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major BWV 552 is another impressive
performance, the speed of the
Prelude just pushing the boundaries
between clarity and interference from the acoustic. The organ is superbly
captured in these recordings, but you can hear where a touch more speed or a
half-metre distance extra from the microphones and the whole thing could end
up in the soup. As it is the results are very fine indeed, with plenty of
atmosphere to put us right into the Himmerod Abbey Church environment, as
well as filling our speakers with fabulously deep and detailed organ
sonics.
Rounding up the rest of the repertoire, the
Passacaglia BWV 582
sounds as good here as I’ve heard it anywhere, the descending lines above
that ground bass at time sounding like a breathtaking icy aurora. The
Prelude and Fugue in G major BWV 541 is meaty and ebullient, as is
BWV 532 with its added drama and feeling of freedom and fantasy.
The final
Pièce d’Orgue is, like
BWV 565 prized in this
context for its monodic opening, as well as for its strong tonal fields and
that remarkable arpeggio section towards the end which closes chapter one of
this release in a genuinely thrilling fashion.
The last time I came across Philip Glass’s organ works was on Kevin
Bowyer’s Nimbus album (see
review) which was already certainly a big improvement on the
composer’s now rather cheesy sounding original
Dance recordings.
Apkalna really blows us away with a spectacular
Dance No. 4 and in
a sound which really will remove the cobwebs from all of your cornices. Like
Pharrell Williams’s ‘Happy’ this is something which will perk you up no end
to start with but will probably end up driving you up the wall. There is
however no better way to climb a wall than here and it really is worth
waiting for those cadence variations towards the end.
Mad Rush was
written for the first visit of the Dalai Lama to the USA in 1979. Despite
the rapid fingerwork demanded this piece confounds its own title to deliver
something rather more meditative than you might expect.
Music in
Contrary Motion does pretty much what it says on the tin, although the
combination of the rich acoustic and the rapid movement of the notes turn
this into more of a shifting colour pattern than chasing lines in this
version. Act 3 from the under-rated opera
Satyagraha is always nice
to hear, building nicely and with elegant phrasing from Apkalna. At nearly a
half-hour,
Dance No. 2 is something of an assault-course and
doesn’t really hold enough musical interest to keep me involved for long,
but as the quote from theatre director Peter Sellars aptly concludes, “it’s
a bit like a train journey all the way across America; when you look out of
the window, it seems like nothing changes for hours…”
The booklet notes propose that “to listen to Johann Sebastian Bach’s organ
works in the context of the music of Phil Glass has something incredibly
refreshing about it”, but separating the two composers between these two CDs
is in my view something of a cop-out. I can understand why it has been done
this way, but if you play around with the tracks and put Glass right up
against Bach then the thing really does take on a life of its own. Almost at
random try just alternating discs, starting with Glass’s
Dance No.
4, followed by
BWV 565, then
Mad Rush,
BWV
590,
Music in Contrary Motion,
BWV 552 and so on –
you’ll soon hear how that ‘context’ can really mix things up, and that the
worlds of the 17
th and 20
th centuries have plenty to
say to each other without being separated onto the gatefolded islands we
have here.
All of this said this has to be one of my top organ releases of the year,
from the tremendous virtuosity and impressive musicality of the playing to
the remarkable quality of the recording. At around 80 minutes for each CD
there can be no complaints about duration/value for money with this package.
With a historical text and full documentation for the Klais organ in its new
2006 disposition there is plenty for the buffs as well the audiophiles,
general fans and other casual fauna who happen to be within earshot and
immediately fall under Iveta Apkalna’s spell.
Dominy Clements
