# Your favorite Organ etc.



## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Three categories, my friends:

"Favorite" Organ Work(s)

"Favorite" Organ Composer(s)

"Favorite" Organist(s)

Some people may not have favorites, and may not like the idea of a favorite. Still, what is catching your eye/ear nowadays?

As for me:

My "favorite" organ work is Alkan's _Impromptu on Luther's 'Un fort rempart est notre Dieu' _ Op.69.











My "favorite" organ composer is Pachelbel.

My "favorite" organist is Kevin Bowyer.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (BWV 582)

J. S. Bach

Organist? I'd probably go with Helmut Walcha... although Peter Hurford would not be far behind... nor would Ton Koopman... especially considering his Buxtehude work.


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## PoliteNewYorker (Dec 20, 2009)

How about my favorite organ? I'd say the gall bladder.


I kid, I kid. All I can say is anything but Saint-Saens Organ Symphony. Not a fan.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Favorite organ work: 
Handel - Organ Concerto No. 14. My favorite movement is the 5th. It never fails to make me happier. Sample no. 5 on this page:

http://www.amazon.com/Händel-Organ-...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0001CPLSS

My favorite organ composer is probably Bach, with honorable mention going to Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck.

My favorite organ? The Hammond B3. No, seriously. Tone wheels rule. I love that sound. It is a powerfully expressive instrument. Nothing else sounds quite like it.


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## nefigah (Aug 23, 2008)

Favorite organ composer is definitely J.S. Bach. Pachelbel gets honorable mention.

And SLGO already stole my favorite piece (the Passacaglia & Fugue)! I also really like Mendelssohn's sonata no. 1.

As for organist, that's a toughie. I like Bowyer as well, but I'd probably have to give the nod to E. Power Biggs. My least favorite of popular organists is Koopman.

My favorite piano transcription of an organ piece is the Bach-Busoni "Chaconne" as performed by Michelangeli.

And my favorite visualization of an organ piece is this video


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Hmm.. Good question. I don't have a singularly favorite organ, really. Here are some honorable mentions though:

Salisbury Cathedral
Cavaillé-Coll, St. Sernin, Toulouse
Notre Dame de Paris
St. Sulpice
Grace Cathedral
Kaliningrad Cathedral


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

nefigah said:


> Favorite organ composer is definitely J.S. Bach. Pachelbel gets honorable mention.
> 
> And SLGO already stole my favorite piece (the Passacaglia & Fugue)! I also really like Mendelssohn's sonata no. 1.
> 
> ...


Really interesting visualization of a round.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

My favourite organ is kidney HO HO HO 

No, srsly. 

I'm not deep into organ musc yet, but I like the organ symphonism of late XIXth century french school. I tried to go with Buxtehude and other baroque fellows but it didin't catch me. 

Recently I've also discovered rather forgotten composer, Feliks Nowowiejski. He composed many organ works in first half of XXth century, most of them are organ symphonies and organ concertos - so far I'm enjoying them a lot (recordings by Jerzy Erdman and Rudolf Innig).


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## altiste (Jun 11, 2008)

Favourite work probably "La nativité du seigneur" by Messiaen, who would be my favourite composer of organ music. Heard some great instruments in Caen, France (Église Saint-Etienne). Anyway, wouldn't organs decompose?


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I've always found this piece to be incredibly hypnotic. I prefer the Walcha recording... but the image on that YouTube video is just creepy and just adds to the stereotype of organ music as related to death, horror, Halloween, and such...





















Of course Hollywood didn't help with such nonsense:


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

My knowledge of organ music is very limited, it's an area I have not gotten into much, although I do intend to attend some recitals soon (a number of churches put them on for free, or for a small donation, with the best organists around here performing).

I recently went to two concerts where Australian organist Amy Johnson was providing accompaniment to masses by Mozart & Arvo Part. I liked how Mozart used the organ as a kind of "highlight" sticking out more from the choir/orchestra/soloists, while in the Part it was more "integrated" into the whole texture of the work. I like works like Liszt's _Faust Symphony_, Scriabin's _Poem of Ecstasy _or Janacek's _Taras Bulba_, who use the organ sparingly (only) at the end of these works, to give a sense of finality and depth. Hate Saint-Saens' _Organ Symphony_, except the exquisite somewhat sugary Puccini-esque slow movement, the rest is all too bombastic for me. I've seen it in concert and it was pretty spectacular, but that was when I was a teenager (my tastes have changed greatly). I also don't mind good organ concertos, like Handel's _Cuckoo & the Nightingale _(the only one I've heard by him) and the Poulenc, Respighi and Lovelock.

As for the questions, here's what I can think of:

Favourite solo organ works (that I've heard so far):

*Bach* - Toccata & Fugue in D minor (the best known one, BWV 565, I think?)
*Durufle* - Prelude & Fugue on the name ALAIN, op. 7
*Bruckner & Franck *- I can't remember which pieces (Preludes & fugues, I think, got some on CD)
*Jehan Alain* - Litanies - heard it in a recital yonks ago & it's flowing enmeshment of vivid colours is still so memorable.
*Widor *- Toccata - again, heard in concert in the early '90's, and I think it's justly famous.
*Boellmann *- Suite gothique - yet another I heard live in a recital 20 years ago, and I still remember it's darkness & sense of drama.
*Elgar* - Enigma Variations (arrangement for organ) - again, Nimrod from this was heard live, but would be great to hear the complete work in this format. I kind of relate more to Elgar for solo instruments or chamber groups, not so much his orchestral efforts.

Favourite organ composers:

Those above. I'm interested in exploring Alain, Boellmann & Widor a bit more, as I haven't heard anything else by them. I also want to get into some of Sweenlick's and Messiaen's organ works, because I haven't heard anything by them.

Favourite organist:

In the classical realm, I'm still not that knowledgeable, but I've especially enjoyed all of the organists I saw here in Sydney in live recitals. I especially enjoyed Heather Moen Boyd's recital at St Andrew's Cathedral in the early '90's, playing the Alain, as well as her own music and Walton's spectacular _Crown Imperial_.

In the jazz realm, I really like musicians who play hammond organ, like Jimmy Smith & Rhoda Scott.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Andre said:


> My knowledge of organ music is very limited, it's an area I have not gotten into much, although I do intend to attend some recitals soon (a number of churches put them on for free, or for a small donation, with the best organists around here performing).
> 
> I recently went to two concerts where Australian organist Amy Johnson was providing accompaniment to masses by Mozart & Arvo Part. I liked how Mozart used the organ as a kind of "highlight" sticking out more from the choir/orchestra/soloists, while in the Part it was more "integrated" into the whole texture of the work. I like works like Liszt's _Faust Symphony_, Scriabin's _Poem of Ecstasy _or Janacek's _Taras Bulba_, who use the organ sparingly (only) at the end of these works, to give a sense of finality and depth. Hate Saint-Saens' _Organ Symphony_, except the exquisite somewhat sugary Puccini-esque slow movement, the rest is all too bombastic for me. I've seen it in concert and it was pretty spectacular, but that was when I was a teenager (my tastes have changed greatly). I also don't mind good organ concertos, like Handel's _Cuckoo & the Nightingale _(the only one I've heard by him) and the Poulenc, Respighi and Lovelock.
> 
> ...


Ask and you shall receive! Don't ask and you will still receive! Here is a recording of Widor himself playing the famous Toccata:


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

The Art of Fugue. J.S. Bach. Glenn Gould.


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