Great orchestral / symphonic organ music which challenges your hardware

[chris256]

I'm following asr quite a while and like it very much! The best hardware is for sure this one, which doesn't add anything throughout the whole path strait from the beginning until the end.
But the hardware as such doesn't make any fun without appropriate "software". Challenging music should contain amongst (at least for me):

• high dynamics
• high frequency range
• extremely good playing
• great clang color
• high recording quality

The organ (and the corresponding room!) can be for sure an instrument which brilliantly achieves those requirements - provided that it's played by a great organist who exactly knows what he's doing and who knows how to use those many organ stops to create impressive and colorful sounds.

Therefore, if you like orchestral / symphonic organ music, I think you should give Jonathan Scott and his brother Tom a try (or another example).

I'm enjoying big churches with large reverb (which gives great acoustics), very deep basses, sharp trumpets and reed stops - all at the same time! If this is stable reproduced even on very high volume (like a concert or more) without dropping of any clearness and transparency, you're surely on the right track. It always should sound completely easy as if you would be part of the concert in one of those big churches. You can feel the 32'' stops and enjoy the sharpness of the trumps! I'm regularly getting goosebumps!


Have fun!
Chris

 

[AdamG]

Welcome Aboard @chris256 ! As a child I was amazed and enthralled by Church Organs. All those switches, buttons, pedals and keys! Incredible music devices of great complexity. Thanks for sharing.

 

[DVDdoug]

I don't own any organ music but when I was young I was in charge of recording the church service and I sat next to the pipes. The bass was "nice". (They were behind a screen... I remember my mom complaining that they were hidden.)

 

[chris256]

My wife is playing the organ within the service - but we don't have such organs here and no - she can't play that good like Jonathan. But she's a great fan of him and we had the chance to attend two of his concerts last year in Germany!

 

[MaxwellsEq]

The download file of the recording of this on Salisbury Cathedral organ is excellent

Hans Zimmer - Interstellar Organ Suite

This is a really special one - the soundtrack to Hans Zimmer's most famous score, arranged for solo organ and recorded on one of the finest organs in the world. A match made in heaven? This transcription has been made by Richard over many months, and is one of his proudest achievements...

www.beautyinsound.co.uk

 

[Nitreb]

The download file of the recording of this on Salisbury Cathedral organ is excellent

Hans Zimmer - Interstellar Organ Suite

This is a really special one - the soundtrack to Hans Zimmer's most famous score, arranged for solo organ and recorded on one of the finest organs in the world. A match made in heaven? This transcription has been made by Richard over many months, and is one of his proudest achievements...

www.beautyinsound.co.uk

There's also a nice organ version of the Well Tempered Clavier with Daniele Boccaccio:

Bach, J S: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 & 2

Bach, J S: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 & 2. Brilliant Classics: 95157. Buy download online. Daniele Boccaccio (organ)

www.prestomusic.com

 

[Doodski]

 

[EJ3]

WOW!

 

[Doodski]

WOW!

Yes, that's a classic for sure. Even a non classical listener like me can get into this stuff.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Yes, that's a classic for sure. Even a non classical listener like me can get into this stuff.

But some classical listeners (like me) find it a bit off-putting.

 

[Doodski]

But some classical listeners (like me) find it a bit off-putting.

What is some tasty organ music?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

What is some tasty organ music?

Dunno if I know of any "tasty" organ music. In general, I don't care for transcriptions.

 

[chris256]

Well - I don't know of any "tasty" native version of Handel's Overture of the Royal Fireworks e.g. - they are all just boring to me - compared to the one played by Jonathan in Krakow. But I respect your point of view as it is pretty subjective.

Btw: I have some organ recordings I didn't like until I had an appropriate reproduction chain which is able to resolve the often pretty complex sonic images of organs. Extremely complicated can be some Cavaillé Coll organs in France e.g.

 

[Lieglein]

Max Reger challenges everything.

 

[dualazmak]

How about these?
Excellent Recording Quality Music Albums/Tracks for Subjective (and Possibly Objective) Test/Check/Tuning of Multichannel Multi-Driver Multi-Amplifier Time-Aligned Active Stereo Audio System and Room Acoustics; at least a Portion and/or One Track being Analyzed by Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition in Common Parameters: [Part-09] Organ Music #641 on my project thread.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Well - I don't know of any "tasty" native version of Handel's Overture of the Royal Fireworks e.g. - they are all just boring to me - compared to the one played by Jonathan in Krakow. But I respect your point of view as it is pretty subjective.

Any "point of view" is subjective. There are lots of organ recordings that I love but I'm not sure if they are "tasty."

 

[chris256]

Max Reger challenges everything.

Basically yes. But I don't think the first example is a good one. I attached an excerpt which shows the problem of so many (organ) recordings: massive distortion / overdrive already on the recording site (which can be heard).

The second example is much better and sounds pretty natural to me.

@dualazmak : The Bach Sinfonia sounds synthetic to me. Which is no surprise as it isn't a real organ but a sample set.

 

[dualazmak]

@dualazmak : The Bach Sinfonia sounds synthetic to me. Which is no surprise as it isn't a real organ but a sample set.

Yes, I too wrote so there as follows;
Today, I had nice discussion with @Shorty in our posts here, here, here, and here regarding the organ instrument in the YouTube clip. He kindly informed that the organ used is not a real physical one, but it is a virtual software organ which can simulate over 150 historic classical and theatre organs all over the world. Now I fully understand the "virtual quality" and "virtual huge pipes" of the video clip, and the reasons for that I could not find any info on "real" organ for the YouTube clip; a little bit of disappointment I feel. Nevertheless, I still assume/believe that the video clip and the performance would be a nice challenge and reference to/for our audio setup.

 

[Elkerton]

A few very good recordings of organ with orchestra. The Atma recording is also available in SACD. There is also an SACD recording of the Poulenc/Saint-Saens with Oliver Latry which I’ve listened to in stereo, but not multichannel, which is excellent.

 

[TimF]

Attached is fiery performance that will challenge your HiFi. It is Boris Berezovsky playing the middle movement of the Khachaturian Piano Concerto, TELDEC Recordings, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra. It is an over-the-top performance but I think it is a credible and legitimate interpretation of the work. The Khachaturian Piano Concerto is of a different character than his violin concerto. The piece really builds after the six minute point. I believe there is a contrabassoon that comes in this movement at a couple of places. Khachaturian is my guilty pleasure.

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