Paul Hindemith’s three organ sonatas are superbly composed and
nicely compact. They have with some justification been described
as cornerstones of 20th century organ repertoire. Having a look
at some alternatives, I spotted Paul Shoemaker’s positive review
of Anton Heiller’s recording on the Warner Apex label, and there
is another recording coupled with some of Reger’s organ pieces
on the Chandos label, but recordings of these fine works are
not exactly thick on the ground. My own reference is another
excellent performance; that of Peter Hurford on Decca 417 159-2.
Compared with Kevin Bowyer’s Marcussen instrument at Odense
Cathedral, the German Rieger Organ Hurford plays has a rounder
tone and a far gentler atmosphere in movements such as the Sehr
langsam in Sonata I. These differences are only really
relevant in A/B comparisons, and both instruments and performances
are filled with colour and contrast. While the Odense sound
can be harder hitting in forte passages, the greater
sense of life Bowyer brings to these pieces is ultimately preferable
to my mind. The Nimbus recording is cut at a higher level so
one has to be nimble with the volume control before giving it
plus points for greater detail: both are very fine indeed, but
in the end it is Bowyer’s playing and the Odense instrument
which take the laurels.
Having a look at Sonata III as the one I know best, it
is clear that Bowyer has a more responsive swell, the graduations
in dynamic much clearer in the first movement, “Ach Gott,
wem soll ich’s klagen...” and indeed throughout the entire
piece. The contrast in colour between registers is a good deal
more acute here as well, generating textural interest as well
as beautifully expressing the harmonies and all-important melodic
content. Hurford’s atmospheric playing in “Wacht auf, mein
Hort” is gorgeous, but somehow more objectified than Bowyer.
Hurford is heavenly and rarefied, Bowyer more earthy and inspiring,
and he manages to make the final “So wünsch ich ihr” sound
more sprightly and fun than I’ve heard before. Moving in reverse,
the same goes for the opening Lebhaft in Sonata II.
Although this isn’t ‘light’ music there is certainly nothing
heavy in the way Bowyer presents any of these pieces, with the
strong lyrical qualities of slow movements played with clear
and expressive phrasing, the more dramatic sections being more
fleeting moments of contrast rather than weighty swathes of
Teutonic angst.
With only a few brief extras by Distler and Kropfreiter on Hurford’s
Decca disc, the couplings from Bowyer on Nimbus are far more
substantial and interesting. Nicholas Williams’ booklet notes
tell us that Arnold Schoenberg’s Variations on a Recitative
Op.40 is his only completed organ work and his longest for
any solo instrument. Schoenberg partially reverted to post-romantic
chromaticism in this piece, rather than extending the serial
techniques which were already an established part of his output
at the time. The work is not particularly ‘difficult’ to listen
to as a concert piece, but does have plenty of strangeness going
on and requires a few listens to unpick. It “bridges the stylistic
gap between the tonal complexity of the Op.9 Chamber Symphony
and the more dissonant language of his later music.” Kevin Bowyer
certainly has the measure of this piece’s dramatic and wide-ranging
extremes of register and content, and the clarity with which
counterpoint and the treatment of themes come across is very
useful. Schoenberg’s unfinished Sonata movements precede
the Variations, and are probably the original response
to the commission which led to the completed Op.40. These
fragments show how wide the contrast is between the chromatic
idiom of the Variations and Schoenberg’s serial style.
The atonal character of the movements make the music more abstract,
while the sense of thematic direction and textural gesture are
still very much present – a duality which makes one wish the
Sonata had been completed, perhaps even in preference
to the Variations.
The programme for this fine CD concludes with Ernst Pepping’s
Three Fugues on BACH. With the familiar four note sequence
as a handle, these fugues are organic and appealing, exploring
polyphony according to the strict rules of Bach’s academic style,
but giving us an expressive and ‘modern’ take on the fugue form.
The second of these is a particularly fine double fugue, the
slow and monumental Andante of which is followed by a
magnificent and harmonically fascinating Maestoso passionato,
the final sparkly bells finishing the recital with a
fine flourish.
The quality of recording is every bit as fine here as for Kevin
Bowyer’s complete recordings of J.S. Bach’s organ work, now
available on a handy and highly recommended MP3
edition. As interpretations of Hindemith’s Organ Sonatas
go, this is as good as any I know, and better than most
if not all.
Dominy Clements
Kevin Bowyer (organ) 
