wolsey

I am able to answer my own question. According to BBC Music Magazine, Messiaen's La Nativité du Seigneur is the subject of Building a Library on 31 May.

The available recordings of Duruflé's complete organ works were reviewed in May 2006. Looking back at least ten years ago, the complete organ works of Vierne were featured in April 1997 when Ben van Oosten's recording of all six symphonies were then considered the best available, and the Franck Chorals were featured in June 1996. Details of these Building a Library recommendations are all available online. I am pleased to see that a survey of Messiaen is coming up soon. In this his centenary year, an examination of the best version of his [complete?] organ works is long overdue. Am I correct in saying that BBC Music Magazine gives details of works to be featured in BaL? If so, is there a date and details of the forthcoming Messiaen review? Key works in any organ lover's library could include:- Bach's organ works (last looked at in, I think, the early nineties); the Widor symphonies (the late Felix Aprahamian wrote of Chorzempa's readings of No. 5 and 10 from St Sernin, Toulouse, "It still strikes me as near exemplary on all counts: the organ, recording and playing. ... I would not look elsewhere for a better realization of either work.") Reubke's The 94th Psalm; Buxtehude's complete organ works.

This is indeed regrettable. Martin Monkman of Amphion Recordings (the producer of the 1999 - 2002 4-volume compilation from the EMI Great Cathedral Organ Series) remarks in the notes to volume 4, "Sadly, due to contractual difficulties, no recordings from Westminster Cathedral could be included on these reissues." It's also fascinating to see which organists' performances in the series (up to 45 years ago) others consider to be extra-ordinary. Roger's Fisher's Reubke has been mentioned; and Francis Jackson rightly merited a separate complete reissue of his GCOS recording. His performance of 'the' Willan is peerless. Others for me (subjective, of course) are Allan Wicks at Canterbury; Conrad Eden at Durham; and Christopher Robinson at Worcester.

The choir concerned was that of St John's College, Cambridge in 1985, when Langlais visited the college to give an organ recital - presumably one in the well-established Sunday evening pre-Evensong series; the Messe Solennelle (1951) was sung at the morning Eucharist. What isn't yet clear is whether Langlais spontaneously added the top Cs at the end of the Sanctus and Benedictus having heard the choir in rehearsal, or whether he merely sanctioned something which the choir was already doing. Is there a former choir member on here, or can anyone get hold of the organ students at the time (James Cryer, Philip Kenyon or possibly Robert Huw Morgan)?

You omitted St Pauls' Cathedral...

It's also good to see that last year he successfully completed his PhD on Dupré and I, for one, wish Dr Filsell well in this new chapter of his career. The flow of organists across the pond continues though...

Sadly, no. I treasure greatly my cassette tape copy of that vinyl recording which, one day, I'll transfer to my computer and thence to CD/iPod. Stephen Cleobury, not Jonathan Rennert, was the organist on that John's recording. Having heard much about the work, I heard it for the first time on Easter Day - in St John's College Chapel - in 1979 while myself up at Cambridge. The mix of music, liturgy, incense (!) and occasion left me in a stupor for the rest of the day.

In the same way that the St John's/George Guest 1969 recording of the Langlais Mass Solennelle established that setting in the the repertoire of many Anglican cathedrals and 'places where they sing' (helped by former John's organ scholars now in positions as DoMs), this excellent recording from Westminster Cathedral has, in my opinion, led to the frequent appearance on many choral establishments' music lists in the last ten years of the Widor and (particularly) Vierne Masses - as well as the Widor and Dupré motets.

Peter Williams comments that doubts about J S Bach's authorship were raised because of suspicions raised by the 'poor' sources. It also contains five unusual features when considered as a fugue, and there is a progression which, put bluntly, is poor writing for a person like Bach.

Paul Griffiths FRCO, who was a co-opted member of the RCO Council and a member of the Executive Committe, left last September to take up the role of CEO of Dubai Airports where he is now masterminding the building of a new international airport. While in the UK, he served as Executive Commercial Director of Virgin Trains before becoming Managing Director of BAA Gatwick. Away from the office, he played regularly for services at Guildford Cathedral. In recognition of his RCO work before moving to the Middle East, he was made a Vice-President of the College.

A slight digression, but I think I am right in saying that the refurbished Westminster Abbey organ console no longer has the individual general setter buttons above the solo manual (a common place for general pistons) - and not before time. Not a few came to grief with this strange layout... A stepper is a useful enhancement to the provision of general pistons and memory levels, and is superior to a sequencer - especially the Taylor variety.

And all the better for it. Put aside for a moment his considerable acting achievements, and you have a former St Paul's Cathedral chorister; Clifton College music scholar; Caius, Cambridge choral scholar and singing postgraduate (GSM&D). With such a CV and an evident love of what we all enjoy, the series is blessed with a perfect presenter.

The memorial service (not concert) took place at the Church of St Giles-in-the-Fields in London, and somehow, I just can't see Francis's Festal Flourish working so effectively on Bill Drake's organ restoration there. What? No Mirabilis? I hear you say...

Shame! Why not?

The big question for me is which of the two new editions (Carus and Bärenreiter) is better?

'Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich' from the Orgelbüchlein (J S Bach)

Dupré: Vêpres du Commun de la Sainte-Vierge, Op. 18 (published as Fifteen Pieces). I've used a group of either the Antiphon versets, or those for the Ave Maris Stella in recitals. If you use the Ave Maris Stella versets, the final Toccata ends ff as Dupré himself did in a 1960s recording from St Ouen, Rouen. The diminuendo is for liturgical use when the verset would have been followed by a versicle sung by the lone voice of a cantor.

Erm, RC Cathedral of Brentwood in Essex - not Brentford in Middlesex

The texture of the arpeggiated variations (14 and wide-ranging 15) suggests - to my ears - any registration other than a plenum. Why are players' ears often so insensitive to such matters in the architecture of music?

Looking at bars 39 and 41, the dotted crotchet pedal octave in bar 43 is correct, and the manual chords should surely be dotted crotchets followed by a quaver rest, and not as printed. On the basis that six other similar bars on that page had ties, I had pencilled in a tie here many years ago...

I had a nagging feeling as I sat down and corrected these misprints - confirmed by what Langlais plays in the Salisbury recording I mentioned in post number 2 above. I therefore decided to listen to the performance with a pair of headphones, and have picked up two further misprints: bar 4: RH first chord - the middle note Langlais plays is B sharp, not B natural bar 22: LH 2nd (dotted crotchet) chord - the upper note he plays is F - not A To clarify an ambiguity: 9 bars from the end (bar 84): the A sharp in the group of grace notes still applies in the following three RH quaver chords.

No - F natural as printed. I have an old recording of Langlais himself playing the Incantation at Salisbury Cathedral in the early 80s. He plays F natural. They neither appear in Hedar's 1952 edition nor Albrecht's of 1998. Current thought is that these editions - as well as those by Beckmann and Belotti (all post-1950) are 'recommended'. The Peters edition is not recommended at all.

"Good thinking, Batman!" I stand corrected.

Do a little 'googling', Iain; there are CDs of organ duets around - and searching on Amazon will yield results. The famous 3-movement S Wesley duet has been mentioned, and there are others by Soler. The Mozart clock transcriptions (K594 and K608) are available in some editions to be performed by two organists. Langlais wrote a Double Fantasie pour deux organistes which is worth investigating, and my personal favourite to play and listen to is Leighton's Martyrs.

I am reminded in the preface of my Bärenreiter edition of the Orgelbüchlein that the collection was intended by Bach to be an organist's compendium of chorale arrangements for the entire church year. He inscribed the title pages of 164 chorales beforehand, of which only 46 were completed. The titles of the uncompleted chorales are given in the Bärenreiter edition, and settings of 'Aus tiefer Not' and 'Erbarm dich mein' - two Lent chorales I'm aware of - were intended.