Regent 'the English Cathedral Series'

[Florian]

Which are in your opinion the most interesting volumes?

[Gary Cole]

Which are in your opinion the most interesting volumes?

 

As I'm naturally disappointed that it would seem that none of the regular contributors to the board have had the opportunity to hear any of the Volumes in this series (now up to Vol 13), or have no comments to make, I therefore hope the board moderator will allow me to add a few comments and apologise if this infringes board rules....

 

All have something of interest (being in a way a profile of the resident cathedral organist) but if I could be forgiven for suggesting the following as a starting point:

 

I'm sure that Mr Lucasorg is too modest to suggest his own volume which was no 1 in the series (REGCD159) but this has great historical interest in being a recording of the old organ in all its glory...

 

Vol IV (REGCD163) is also of historic interest, being David Hill's final recording from Winchester (and his first solo organ disc for many years)

 

Vol VI (REGCD174) was the first recording of the new Ely organ.

 

The pyrotechnics of Rupert Jeffcoat in 'Vision of Christ Phoenix' Vol XI Coventry (REGCD199) are pretty awesome and finally

 

Vol XIII (REGCD227) Rochester has the first recording of Exite Fidelis by Paul Ayres and shows that a catherdal organ can give Jools Holland's Hammond a run for his money

 

Gary Cole

Regent Records

[emsgdh]

I have purchased each volumn and have only kept nos. II (Birmingham), IV (Winchester) & VII (Norwich). Each of these has EXCELLENT playing and fine sounding instruments. I found the others much less interesting with Ely and Newcastle perhaps the worst.

 

Karl Watson,

Staten Island, NY

[Guest Cynic]

I have purchased each volumn and have only kept nos. II (Birmingham), IV (Winchester) & VII (Norwich). Each of these has EXCELLENT playing and fine sounding instruments. I found the others much less interesting with Ely and Newcastle perhaps the worst.

 

Karl Watson,

Staten Island, NY

 

 

I feel moved to stand up for Scott Farrell and the Newcastle CD, a copy of which I have here and regularly play. Karl's opinion is valid, but it's one opinion and might reflect the choice of music more than the quality of sound, the organ or the playing. All of these are well up-to-standard on this release in my opinion.

 

The trouble with this topic, Gary, is that it's too open-ended and only those in Karl Watson's position who have actually heard a large number of them can expect to comment fairly.

 

Having said that, I would want to indicate my profound support for Gary Cole and Regent Records for actually bothering to do all this work on our behalf. This is not just activity, it represents major expenditure too. In these days when the benighted BBC cannot bother even to record single Songs of Praise programmes for TV any more and proper Radio 3 organ Recitals seem to be a thing of the past (except for some totally unknown reason, occasional ones by David Goode) this is a very important series. It is easily on a par with Priory's Great European Organ Series (some of which were recorded on instruments of considerably less charm) and the now historic Great Cathedral Organ Series, Brian Culverhouse's marathon project for EMI.

[AJJ]

Having said that, I would want to indicate my profound support for Gary Cole and Regent Records for actually bothering to do all this work on our behalf. This is not just activity, it represents major expenditure too. In these days when the benighted BBC cannot bother even to record single Songs of Praise programmes for TV any more and proper Radio 3 organ Recitals seem to be a thing of the past (except for some totally unknown reason, occasional ones by David Goode) this is a very important series. It is easily on a par with Priory's Great European Organ Series (some of which were recorded on instruments of considerably less charm) and the now historic Great Cathedral Organ Series, Brian Culverhouse's marathon project for EMI.

 

Ditto the recordings by Peter King from Bath Abbey from Regent - good repertoire - exciting sound!

 

AJJ

[Davidb]

i have got some of these disks, and feel that they are fantastic as a 'record' of what the English cathedral landscape is like at this time. (i hope this is how they're intended:P)

 

I think if it ends up at a 40+ disk set, this could be one of the defining organ recording series, definitely on a par with the 'great european organs'

 

One thing i have noticed on some disks, is obscure works by contempory local composers (such as Ronald Watson on the Norwich disk) - If Regent have any say in this, i would certainly wish they encouraged more of this

[Guest Roffensis]

Which are in your opinion the most interesting volumes?

 

 

All of them....excellent....more, please!!

 

R

[Brian Childs]

All of them....excellent....more, please!!

 

R

 

I concur and I own all of them. I also find myself in agreement with Cynic's remarks and would echo the sentiments expressed. Perhaps the initial lack of answers was caused by the lack of specificity in the question ? Interesting to whom and on what basis ? This may well not have been intended but it seems to me that a question posed in these words is not asking for the same information as is required to answer "Which ones do you like most and why ?" The latter is clearly a question about personal preferences: they may be shared or not but they cannot be wrong. "Interesting" seems to me to imply a greater degree of detachment, but this may well not have been intended.

 

For information, the ones I play most often are Norwich and Ripon. I do not share the reservations of another contributor about Ely and prefer the organ as it is now to what its state was for the generation preceding the recent rebuild. Tending in the other direction, I can admire the technical skill shown at Coventry but I will never derive pleasure from listening to organ music in this style.

[ajt]

For information, the ones I play most often are Norwich and Ripon.

 

Who's playing on the Ripoon one? [edit - found the answer : Andrew Bryden ]

 

I have the Lichfield one (Lumsden), and very much enjoy it .

[Jeremy Jones]

I think I have most if not all of the series so far. A small handful have for me been disappointing, due to repertoire that I did not like (Worcester, Birmingham, Coventry) or an organ that just did not seem very special (Newcastle). Otherwise, they have all been uniformly good with a handful of exceptional quality (Winchester, Truro, Ely). Curiously, I found Andrew Lumsden at Lichfield somewhat pedestrian sounding but the subsequent Regent CD made there with Philip Scriven (Piping Hot) is a huge favourite of mine that is often to be found spinning in my CD player.

 

The series seems to have run out of steam of late, but I hope this is only temporary, and that it will be full speed ahead at Cole Towers in due course.