The English-born American
organist Edward Power Biggs was an extraordinarily important
figure in the organ reform movement, not only in the USA,
but also in Europe. A brilliant organist, he was among the
first to record on historic organs throughout Europe, when
most of his more famous European counterparts were more interested
in recording organs built during the first wave of the neo-baroque
period. Biggs was responsible of course for the commissioning
of one of those organs, the Flentrop at Harvard University,
made famous through his recordings and broadcasts. But his
most important legacy is his body of recordings for CBS matching
literature with old instruments in a manner more far-sighted
than almost anyone else of his generation, in my estimation
at least. His Mozart recording from the freshly-Marcussened
St Bavo organ in Haarlem remains phenomenal. He recorded
Bach on Schnitger organs in Nieder-Sachsen, as well as in
Zwolle and a host of other venues, Cabanilles on historic
organs in Spain, Frescobaldi in Italy, and even Handel in
Great Packington on the Samuel Green organ designed by Handel
himself. As you will by now have gathered, he is one of my
heroes and it is to be regretted that comparatively little
of his recorded oeuvre has been re-issued. As well as his
work championing historic instruments, his Poulenc Concerto
recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra, or the Copland
Symphony recording with the New York Philharmonic are also
too remarkable to be forgotten.
The current recording
dates from 1967 and is typical of Biggs's energy and vision.
His desire to make the first Gabrieli recordings in the San
Marco in Venice was fulfilled through a bizarrely idiosyncratic
combination of people and circumstances. The choirs were
American, the brass players German and the organ Austrian.
The project came up against huge problems of logistics. To
quote producer John McClure: "We countered bureaucracy
with deceit, resistance with guile, hesitation with aggression
and were thus able to overcome both customs and the Church,
who, it must be said, had rented us her body but not her
heart."
One of the most eccentric
aspects has to be the use of a ten stop Rieger organ transported
from Austria for the recording. Its very equal temperament
is reflected in the brass - a curious mixture of old and
modern instruments, though all well played - and in addition
to what McClure describes as an "ambivalence towards
authenticity", it must be said that the singing is more
lusty than beautiful.
However these complaints
from the ears of 2006 miss the point. This recording is a
fantastic example of the best of the questing spirit which
characterised the re-awakening of interest in early music
in the middle of the 20th century. It is a fascinating sound-document.
Chris Bragg
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E Power Biggs
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