The Fat (French) Lady Sings in Fort Worth!
James Yelvington | USA | 05/03/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
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When I read of this recording I was intrigued enough to order it right away. It wasn't that I'd heard of Bradley Welch, but the maiden recital of a new giant among French-style organs was irresistible! And the program seemed interesting enough, though maybe not quite what I would have expected (e.g., no Franck).
First, a word about the organ: it is indeed a giant, claiming to be the largest French-style organ in the world. Built between 1994 and 1996 as opus 3750, the biggest ever by Casavant Frères of Québec, it boasts 11 divisions, 191 ranks, and some 10,615 pipes, all housed in the Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas. A few interesting features include the two 5-manual electromechanical consoles, front (chancel division) and rear (antiphonal division) "en chamade" (horizontal) trumpets, a Zimbelstern stop (dubbed "clochette"), and a Bombarde division specially designed for playing with an orchestra. (The last item raises the question of when we'll get from this organ a new recording of the Saint-Saëns Third "Organ" Symphony with the Fort Worth Symphony. When it comes it should be well worth hearing!)
As for the music, it is not limited to the French masters, nor to any particular nationality, but includes nearly 69 minutes of quite varied fare, emphasizing the 20th century. To be sure, the French are represented: Dupre, Guilmant, and surprisingly Debussy, in works which account for nearly half of the disk's duration. The Germans Max Drischner and J.S. Bach, the English John Cook and John Newton (Amazing Grace), and the American Raymond Haan round out the composers of the eight works presented. We thus get the idea that this first recording is designed to exploit the organ's versatile and colorful palette and to show what it can do over a fairly broad range of music.
The youthful organist, Bradley Hunter Welch, is a Tennessee native transplanted to Dallas, Texas, where he is Artist-in-Residence at Highland Park United Methodist Church. A student of Joyce Jones at Baylor University and of Thomas Murray and Martin Jean at Yale University (where he's currently a candidate for the doctor of musical arts degree), Mr. Welch won the Dallas International Organ Competition in 2003 and has appeared with several orchestras, playing the world premiere of Stephen Paulus' Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony. On this recording he displays impressive command of the considerable resources of the organ, all the technique we could ask for, and excellent interpretive insights.
Here are a few comments on the individual pieces:
John Cook's "Fanfare" is a familiar vehicle to display the more showy aspects of a given organ. It highlights the reedy trumpets, but demonstrates, too, the full organ with its ear-filling lower stops as well as some delicate textures of flutes and mixtures. The church's reported 5-second reverberation time suggests that very loud and full passages of fast notes may get blurred considerably unless pains are taken to control the acoustic environment.
Max Drischner, another 20th century composer, offers a lovely and imaginative set of variations on "O Laufet Ihr Hirten," (Come Running, Ye Shepherds) which feature mainly the softer and subtler sonorities of the instrument, though not eschewing entirely the trumpets, reeds, and powerful pedals. If my ears don't deceive me, we get to enjoy the unusual and delightfully playful Zimbelstern (a rotating set of little bells) at about 2'47" into this piece. As Drischner offered no guide to registration, we have to thank Mr. Welch for his imaginative and wholly appropriate choices. The piece as presented here is utterly charming, tender, and child-like in its sincerity and simplicity, according well with its Christmasy theme.
Raymond Haan, again mainly of the 20th century, gives us another work emphasizing the softer, sweeter, and more peaceful mood of the instrument in his "Pastorale." The work is lovely and conveys wonderfully the expected idyllic mood.
Heavier listening is "Crucifixion" from Dupré's "Symphonie Passion," a work begun as a public improvisation on the Wanamaker organ and later developed for publication. The mood is sad, lugubrious, pathetic, and even painful, with much emphasis on lower stops, along with dissonant cries from the middle ranges. As presented here the programmatic piece is highly effective and emotionally evocative.
A second work associated with the Wanamaker is Virgil Fox's sensational arrangment of J.S. Bach's sacred song "Komm süsser Tod," translated here as "Come Sweetest Death" (though elsewhere more correctly as "Come Sweet Death"). In any case, Welch displays his courage by tackling the work so much identified with Fox, and comes out very well indeed! The performance of this dead-slow arrangement builds steadily toward a hugely powerful climax and then rather quickly dies away to a barely audible pedal rumble. Though it will never displace Fox's 1960's recording, this rendition is strikingly beautiful and impressive, not only in its excellent interpretation, but also in the sumptuous sound of the organ as offered up by 24-bit digital engineering.
Frederick Swann's arrangement of the folk-like hymn "Amazing Grace" starts with reeds imitating the bagpipe then proceeds to fuller, more characteristic organ textures. It is a smallish, peaceful work in a mood of resignation fitting to its subject, and sounds very beautiful.
Surely the most substantive composition here is the 1874 "Sonata 1 in D Minor" of Alexandre Guilmant, world-class organ virtuoso, beloved and respected teacher, and prolific composer. Undoubtedly written for the Cavaillé-Coll organ at the Church of the Holy Trinity (Église de la Sainte-Trinité) in Paris, where Guilmant was titulaire from 1871 to 1901, the three-movement, 25-minute work is fully symphonic in character. The first movement features vigorous successions of strong, rich and full chords, as well as athletic, reedy, and powerful pedal motifs, the 32-foot stops providing all the bass you could want, and a brassy trumpet fanfare. The second is a pastorale which doesn't seem quite characteristic of the genre, though it does employ the requisite 6/8 or 12/8 meter. I suppose the point is arguable, but this one does not seem to have nearly the campestral quality of Raymond Haan's piece on track #3. The third movement starts with an energetic figure punctuated by powerful bass chords leading to some strong climaxes, then relieved by a simple, sweet song-like passage whose phrases are terminated with fast arpeggiated filigrees in the bass. The piece grows in excitement, activity, and power until a longish pedal point leads to a brief coda and a strong and exultant final chord. Though the sonata as played on this organ may sound rather different from a Cavaillé-Coll performance, it has an authenticity and character of its own which make it stand up very well in such a comparison.
The final piece is a transcription of Debussy's ubiquitous "Claire de Lune" (Moonlight) made by Cellier (an organist and student of Guilmant). Though this is a pleasant and fairly faithful transcription of an enormously popular impressionistic piano piece, it seems the least important item on the disk. Pianists and lovers of piano music will not likely care much for it, finding it only a very rough approximation of the original. Lovers of "mood music" and those not familiar with the piano version may however enjoy the evanescent and tranquil character of this lacy bit of will-o'-the-wisp music.
To sum things up, this maiden recording both of Bradley Welch and of the new Broadway organ seems a stunning success! Welch plays with great artistry, imagination, and skill on an organ whose sound is very beautiful, even ravishing. I'm particularly impressed with the purity and sweetness of this instrument, its wide palette of nuanced colors, and its majestic fullness and power. (Take a deep bow, Casavant Frères!) Though it may have cost the church some four million dollars, the amount seems a reasonable investment in the edification and enjoyment of not only the congregation, but also of the entire Ft. Worth cultural world. I recommend this CD with the greatest enthusiasm.
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Track Listings (10) - Disc #1