Three Famous Organs (CD) 111

CD Three Famous Organs

from Baltic States

Andres Uibo on Great Organ of the Tallinn Cathedral (Estonia)

Max Reger Benedictus op.59,9
Rudolf Tobias Four chorale preludes
1 O du Liebe meiner Liebe
2 Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit
3 Jesu, meines Lebens Freude
4 Froehlich soll mein Herze
Alfred Karindi Berceuse (from Sonata for organ No.3)

Aivars Kalejs on Walcker Organ of the Riga Dom Church of The St. Mary (Latvia)
Franz Liszt Orpheus
Aivars Kalejs Via dolorosa

Balys Vaitkus on Shuke Organ of the Cathedral in Vilnius (Lithuania)
Joh.Seb.Bach  Fantasia G-major (BWV 572)
Joh.Seb.Bach Chant processing "Christ, unser Herr zum Jordan kam"(BWV 684)
Bronius Kutavicius Ad patres (Sonata)

[Reger: Benedictus; Rudolf Tobias: Four Chorale Preludes; Alfred Karindi: Berceuse (Organ Sonata Na. 3); Liszt: Orpheus; Aivars Kalejs: Via Doloroso; Bach: Piece d'orgue in G, BWV 572; Christ, unserHerr, BWV 684; Bronius Kutavicius (b.1932): Ad Patres (Sonata).] Period pieces on period pieces (Reger on a Sauer, Liszt at Riga) provide the primary appeal here. Estonian Tobias wrote not nearly so imaginatively as his countryman Karindi (whose romantic 1944 Lullaby is a lyric beauty), and the thick, slow, intense harmonic progress of the Kalejs score (a memorial to Latvian victims of the Soviet regime) serves best to set up the vivacity of Bach's G-major "fantasy." In it and the following chorale prelude, the Silberman-inspired Schuke instrument sounds better than in the modern, moody piece by Kutavicius (originally for two organists, based on a Ciurlionis painting titled Funeral Symphony). But this is a realistic slice-of-life-andculture from three former Eastern bloc countries. Performances are dedicated and, like the recorded sound, up to this label's high standard.

(The American Organist March 1998)