Organ Symphony No. 2
Anyone interested in Sorabji's three Organ Symphonies simply has to visit Kevin Bowyers project website. Surely the greatest single Sorabji undertaking.
In preperation for Kevin's performance of OS2 I have created a number of excerpts in Sibelius to familiarise myself with the sound world. The performance of the third part in June 2009 was one of the most extraordinary musical experiences I have had. It was thrilling beyond words. These renditions are with the VSL Konzerthaus Organ.
Preludio,
Adagio & Toccata (Excerpts)
This starts with the first 4
minutes of the preludio fading out and back in at 4'04" into the last
2'30" of the preludio which end at 6'30" when the Adagio starts. You get
the first 3'16" of the Adagio which then it fades out and back in at
9'46" to a section in the middle of the Adagio which caught my eye. Much
of the Adagio, it seems to me is something of a funeral march, there
certainly seems to be a steady tramp through large sections of the
Adagio this middle passage in particular. This section fades out at
13'41" and into the the last part of the Adagio which ends at 16'15"
when we go straight into the remarkable Toccata which in this
performance opens quietly and has an almost eerie mysterious quality.
There are so many notes that you only get (for the moment) the first
three minutes when at 17'23" we fade out and back into the last three
minutes which ends at 20'36".
The peice then goes staright into
the Fuga Triplex which you can listen to above.
These three huge fugues culminate the work. Each fugue is in six voices except very unobtrusively in the stretto of the second fugue a seventh voice is added! The order of voices is:
Fugue one: Bass, Soprano 1, Soprano 2, Alto, Tenor, Pedals.
Fugue two: Bass, Tenor, Pedals, Alto, Soprano 2, Soprano 1.
Fugue three: Bass, Tenor, Alto, Soprano 2, Soprano 1, Pedals.
After all the voices have stated the theme I fade out then fade back into the end of the stretto and into the next fugue. After the third fugue I fade out and into the last couple of pages of the whole work. It sounds fairly impressive here but at the end of Kevin Bowyer's peformance I was physically shaken and had wobbly legs for some time.
This performance is with the Vienna Konzerthaus Organ (recorded by the Vienna Symphonic Library) on the GrosserSaal with the mike position in the 17th row. As to registrations I have absolutely no idea and Sorabji doesn't give any clues so I have just chosen what sounds OK to me. If I have made any howlers please let me know.