Search - Jean Langlais, Kevin Bowyer :: Langlais: Works for Organ

I find it hard to make up my mind about this one

G.D. | Norway | 01/30/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"These are some of the most important items in Jean Langlais's extensive catalogue of organ works and as such they deserve to be heard. I am less certain that this is the ideal recording, however, although my concerns are perhaps related more to Nimbus's recorded sound than to Kevin Bowyer's performances (but I find it somewhat hard to tell for sure). It is definitely not easy music - Langlais's style is freely tonal, rich and complex, somewhat reminiscent of Messiaen but with firmer tonal roots (which emphatically does not imply that the music is more accessible or easier - the music often sounds both denser and grayer than the organ music of his near-contemporary). In any case, the main courses on this disc are the two first organ symphonies, the reflective but dramatic first and the very dense and tough second; Bowyer is in many ways impressive, but sounds at times a little tentative and not completely inside the idiom (but he may be betrayed by a recording quality that has a very wide dynamic range but at the same time comes across as far too murky for comfort, making the organ both screech and rumble excessively). The "lighter" fares in between - more familiar works - don't really sound all that much lighter, but again I suspect the sound may be partly to blame, or maybe the sound in combination with somewhat tentative playing. Still, this is a disc worth seeking out for those impressed by Messiaen or for devout organ buffs, but I am less sure it warrants a more general recommendation."