Search - Charles-Marie Widor, Joseph Jongen, Horatio Parker :: Charles-Marie Widor, Joseph Jongen, Horatio Parker: Works for Organ & Orchestra

The Parker's the surprise

Classic Music Lover | Maryland, USA | 06/11/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This CD starts out with Widor's reworking of his Organ Symphony No. 6 to include a full orchestra (at least that's what the 1st and 3rd movements are from). It's thrilling in the initial hearing, but it doesn't hold up too well under repeated listening. IMHO the orchestral garb doesn't really add anything to the effectiveness of the original, and the added padding does seem heavy-handed in places. The two Jongen works are nice enough, but far less impressive than his Symphonie Concertante, justly known (and recorded) far more than these two pieces. For me, the Horatio Parker Organ Concerto is the real surprise. Parker was not known as anything close to the talents of his American compatriots Loeffler, MacDowell or Chadwick; even the program notes on this CD damn the composer with faint praise. But I really liked the Organ Concerto -- in fact, I found it the most engaging composition on this disk. The 3rd and 4th movements in particular are captivating and very effective. A comment on the recorded sound -- there's a pretty significant "reverb" (hall echo). The bad news: it gets irritating at times. The good news: it covers up the odd mistake made here and there by the orchestra and the organist."