Search - Marcel Dupre, Petr Eben, Judith Hancock :: Dupré: Antiphons, Op. 18; Eben: Sunday Music

The Title Says It All

Poniplaizy | Mount Joy, PA USA | 10/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Sunday music" it definitely is--at least it was, back when church music was spiritual, elevating, and interesting. My father is a retired church organist, and listening to this CD brought back a lot of fond memories of sitting in the choir loft, watching Dad at the console making blissful music. I grew up hearing this kind of stuff every week--I didn't realize how lucky I was till I got out in the big bad world and found out how dreary and mundane the music is at most churches! Judith Hancock employs a straight-ahead but accomplished technique to bring listeners some authentic church music that is not as often recorded as the big, blockbuster pieces. I would like to see more CDs like this on the market, since you can't get good music like this at church anymore."

Marcel Dupré Petr Eben's - Judith Handcock, organ

Jacques Messier | Montréal, Canada | 08/17/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This Dupré / Petr Eben looks at first sight, like an unmutual mix of genre, despite the similarity in the period, as twentieth century organ masterpieces. We recall that Dupré made a spectacular performance in United States during the `40th. Here, the elegance in style of Dupré may contrast with the deep and tortuous mood of Petr Eben, but the worst didn't happened.



Otherwise, another aspect of this CD focused on eclectic religious sense of the repertoire depicted by the most outstanding sound of the Saint-Thomas's organ of New York under the hands of Handcock.



Hard at times, and corrosive in style, this organ music mixture is not uninteresting. The smoothest of Petr Eben's work was chosen here, with the "Sunday Music". Depicted as an austere and dark personage, Petr'Eben leads nevertheless the audience to summates, mainly in his Sunday Music, full of sunshine and easygoing mood. At times, this piece remind me the old Sundays of the past, as time didn't seem to go so fast, making this apart weekday a sort of "out-of-time".



Not so popular by organists and organ fans, mostly hang to the French or German repertoire, Petr Eben is still a curiosity for which a great attention worth the detour.

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