MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Sigfrid KARG-ELERT (1877-1933)
The Complete Organ Works - volume 7
Erste Sinfonische Kanzone (Kanzone und Toccata), op.85 no.1 (1910) [13:26]
Zweite Sinfonische Kanzone, op.85 no.2 (1910) [20:58]
Chaconne and Fugue Trilogy, with Chorale, op.73 (1910) [33:30]
Stefan Engels (organ)
rec. St Mary's Basilica, Kevelaer, Germany, 28-29 March 2011. DDD
PRIORY PRCD 1062 [68:11]

Experience Classicsonline



The German composer Sigfrid Karg-Elert was no great organist, but along with much else he did write a lot of magnificent music for the organ, most of which still suffers from unforgivable neglect - none more so than the three works on this disc. Besides many transcriptions and arrangements, of his own and others' music, Karg-Elert also wrote dozens of original works for the instrument, and since 2005 German organist Stefan Engels has been recording all of them on various organs for church specialists Priory Records. This is volume seven, with eight released concurrently (PRCD 1063) (see review of volume six).
 
Engels is remembered by some perhaps for his two volumes of Marcel Dupré's organ music for Naxos in the Nineties (8.554210, 8.553920). Coincidentally, his Priory edition is in direct competition with that of fellow German Elke Völker on the Aeolus label, although she now lags slightly behind - volume 6 of her series, subtitled 'Ultimate Organ Works', came out at the turn of the year (AE 10721). The latter three Aeolus discs do have the advantage of Hybrid Super-Audio quality, yet the completion of Völker's traversal is, for financial reasons, by no means certain. The three works featured here appeared early on in her series, op.73 on volume 1 (AE 10121) and op.85 on 2 (AE 10171). In price terms, neither set comes cheap, with the Priory discs generally to be had for around 10% less - although shopping around will in most cases iron out the differential.
 
After the generally slower, softer, more reflective works in volume 6, the three featured here ratchet up the passion, especially in their massive, chromatically dazzling endings. These are among the most imaginative organ works of their time by anyone. Despite their differing structures, they are linked by much more than the year 1910: throughout, Karg-Elert exhibits a Bach-like mastery of counterpoint and a gripping sense of pace, drama and colour, approachable melodies and rhythms spiced up by free-range chromaticism and the odd sortie into virtual atonality. In sum, Karg-Elert's music here should appeal to anyone who appreciates the harmonic language and formal innovation of the likes of Widor, Reger and Vierne, although his style is his own. As for performance, Engels is audibly the right man for the job here - he has the requisite technique, stamina and expressive modesty to do Karg-Elert proud.
 
Recording quality is very good, with Priory's experience and expertise in this area readily apparent. The impressive 135-stop Seifert organ at the Päpstliche Basilika Sankt Marien at Kevelaer, Germany's most-visited Catholic pilgrimage hub, dates back to the first decade of the 20th century, with repairs and restorations seeing it through a bomb attack in 1945 and a fire in 2002.
 
Once again, Priory's booklet is a pleasure to read, with a long biography of the composer and as much again on the works heard in volume 7 by Anthony Caldicott, chairman of the Karg-Elert Archive, followed by a detailed description of the organ by Engels, and its full specification. A biography and cheery photo of Engels, plus details of previous releases in the series, make this one of the best CD booklets of the year! The only complaint is about the eye-unfriendly colour scheme: the back inlay tracklist, surprisingly not reprised inside the booklet, uses small white print on a browny-green background.
 
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Error processing SSI file