Recommended for Coltrane loving Democrats

The problem with most jazz treatments of Bach is that creatively they are somewhere on the moderate side of Yo-Yo Ma. But not so a radical new CD which uses improvisation to bring together the music of Johan Sebastian Bach and John Coltrane.

Jazz saxophonist Raphaël Imbert has made an academic study of the spiritual elements of jazz and reveres John Coltrane, who said "my goal is to live a truly religous life and express it in my music", as the only true mystic in the history of jazz. For the CD Bach-Coltrane Imbert teams up with jazzers Jean-Luc Di Fraya (percussion) and Michel Péres (bass) for the Coltrane, the Manfred string quartet for the Bach, while classical organist André Rossi, counter tenor Gérard Lesne and Imbert spread themselves across a CD which is based on the saxophonist's credo of "wherever we come from, we are all musicians".

Bach-Coltrane departs from the world of Jacques Loussier and the Modern Jazz Quartet by its willingness to ignore comfort zones as well as stylistic boundaries. Just one example is Gérard Lesne who ranges from the first air from Bach's Cantata BWV 170 to an unforgetable rendering of Coltrane's 'He nevuh said a mumbalin word' which is the main highlight on a disc of many highlights .

Time for the punch-line, and regular readers will know what I am going to say. Bach-Coltrane is yet another outstanding release from a small independent label - Paris based Zig-Zag Territoires. Can't the major labels put the same rocket-juice in their water? The packaging is beautiful and supplies both my graphics. The header shows the session in the church of Saint André, Bouc Bel Air in France where the wonderful new 'Bach style' organ provided the canto fermo for the project. Zig-Zag's main man Franck Jaffrès delivers stunning sound, and a comprehensively documented CD includes excellent main notes from Raphaël Imbert and a full description of the organ of Saint André which is one of the real stars of the recording.

I bought a bundle of CDs on my recent trip to France and I have several more discs to share with you. But Bach-Coltrane has been played more than any of the others since I found it in the Harmonia-Mundi Boutique in Nantes. There are moments on it which transcend any musical category, particularly André Rossi's Choral de Mi and the Manfred Quartets concluding "O Welt, ich muss dich lassen", BWV 45. Recommended not just for Coltrane loving Democrats, but for anyone who wants to explore beyond their comfort zone.

Obama - Ohana.


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Pipe dreams

Now playing - Gothic Pipes with Kimberley Marshall organ and vocal ensemble Cappella Romana. This Loft Recordings CD goes back to the fourteenth century to present some of the earliest music written for organ from the Faenza Codex and other sources framed by liturgical settings . Beautiful sound from the reconstruction of a fifteenth century organ in Basel's Predigerkirche and the use of the organ's "birdsong" device in the chanson "Or sus, vous dormés trop" ("Now awake, you sleep too much") reminds us that Messiaen trod in the footsteps of others.

Talking of Messiaen it is interesting to reflect that the time that elapsed between the compilation of the Faenza Codex and the birth of Bach is greater than the time that has passed between the death of Bach and today. A select few early composers have become the musical equivalent of household names. But we need more projects like Gothic Pipes to explore the true dawn of Western music.

More truly early music here, and back in the twenty first century read how Loft Recordings built a virtual concert hall.
'Pipes' photo taken in the joiners new house and (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

BBC launches time travel technology

The photo above was taken at Masaaki Suzuki's wonderful Aldeburgh Festival recital in Framlingham Church yesterday morning. He played Jean Adam Guillaume Guilain, William Byrd, Henry Purcell and J.S. Bach on the Tamar organ seen here, which dates from 1674.

The BBC recorded the recital, and their microphone array, with four crossed transducers, can be seen to the right of the organ. I have written here about the much-hyped BBC iPlayer. This may not yet be launched, but it certainly promises some mind-boggling time shift possibilities. Masaaki Suzuki's recital took place on 21 June, here is the note from the Aldeburgh Festival programme booklet:

This performance is being recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast on Lunchtime Concert on 11 June.

Now, for more time travel, follow a path which leads from Framlingham Church to Glenn Gould.
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A composer of outsize ambition and ability

Perhaps first at Reincken's Hamburg apartment, Bach came under the influence of the great Dietrich Buxtehude, organist at St. Mary's in Lübeck and a composer of outsize ambition and ability who was working with all the styles and traditions of Europe. Buxtehude would have a more than musical influence on Sebastian in his first job, and it was in him perhaps more than anywhere else that Sebastian would find the inspiration for what was perhaps his greatest gift to Western culture: forging from a multinational babel a single language of European music ~ from Evening in the Palace of Reason by James Gaines.

Dietrich Buxtehude, born circa 1637, died 9 May 1707.

* For an excellent overview of his music look no further than Pièces Pour Orgue - Dietrich Buxtehude played by Francis Jacob (Zig-Zag Territoires ZZT 030901) which very effectively alternates the solo organ with harmonisations of the chorales for three voices. Francis Jacobs plays the Bernard Aubertin organ in the church of St Martin de Vertus.

* My header picture is the only one known portrait of Dieterich Buxtehude. The painting is Allegory on friendship by Johannes Voorhout, and it shows Buxtehude with a score in his hand, and the Hamburg organist Johann Reincken, who is mentioned above, sitting at a harpsichord. The painting is dated 1674.

And for more from James Gaines take the path to Gentlemen, old Bach is here ...
The extract above is from Evening in the Palace of Reason by James Gaines published by Fourth Estate ISBN 0007153929. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Is the organ baroque?

I was in St Alban's Abbey and I was intrigued: they were building a new organ and I went up to - I suppose it must have been - the verger and I said, 'Is the organ baroque?' And he said, 'No, it's in perfectly good order.'

John Tavener in The Music of Silence, A Composer's Testament (Faber ISBN 0571200885). But Music of Silence is not an original title, it is also the translation of the Spanish composer Federico Mompou's piano cycle Música Callada written between 1959 and 1967. If you don't know Mompou's beautiful music his own recording of his complete piano music on 4CDs from Brilliant Classics is a must-buy. Now read about Even more Brilliant Classics, including Carlo Maria Giulini's Missa Solemnis.

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Mendelssohn – more than a violin concerto

November 2007 brings the 160th anniversary of the death of Felix Mendelssohn, which means this year we are going to hear a lot of Fingal’s Caves, Italian Symphonies, and Violin Concertos. Which is a shame, as Mendelssohn wrote much other fine music which deserves to be heard more often. But the good news is that even if the concert and broadcast programmers stick to his greatest hits you can explore more of Mendelssohn’s fine music on two very affordable CD sets.

Mendelssohn grew up in Berlin, and was a student at the Singakadamie where he first studied the compositions of J.S. Bach, and it was in Berlin that he gave the celebrated anniversary performance of the St Matthew Passion in 1829. While director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Mendelssohn regularly performed Bach’s music, and he edited several of the organ works and was a key figure in the publication of the first complete Bach edition. The influence of Bach can clearly be seen in Mendelssohn’s own organ and choral compositions, and I want to recommend two CD sets which give a wonderful opportunity to explore these influences.

Mendelssohn performed Bach's organ music on his recital tours, and he was familiar with instruments from Bach’s time including the two Silbermann organs in Rötha near Leipzig. The shadow of Bach is most evident in Mendelssohn’s early organ works, but the debt is clear in the whole oeuvre including the Three Preludes and Fugues Op. 37 and Six Sonatas for Organ Op 65 which are the pinnacles of Mendelssohn’s compositions for the instrument. In 1822 Mendelssohn played an organ built by Aloys Mooser in the small town of Bulle in Switzerland, and this was used by Stefan Johannes Bleicher to record Mendelssohn’s complete organ music which is now available on a super-budget priced 3CD set from Arte Nova. The classical design and build of the Aloys Mooser organ guarantee authenticity, and the sound and performances are excellent on this outstanding set.

Bach’s model is also clear in Mendelssohn’s choral works, particularly the eight chorale cantatas. These can be enjoyed in an outstanding 10CD box of Mendelssohn’s complete choral works from the enterprising Dutch super-budget label Brilliant Classics. I cannot recommend this set highly enough. These are not previously issued recordings released under licence, they are sparkling new digital recordings which offer excellent sound with Reinhard Geller doubling as producer and engineer. The Chamber Choir of Europe under Nicol Matt give exemplary performances, and the packaging is excellent and includes complete texts. I bought my set for just €24.99 (£14/$27) in Galeria Kaufhof in Leipzig last year, a store that almost overlooks St Thomas’ and is a short distance from the famous Mendelssohn Haus.

These two enterprising super-budget labels have got their fingers on the musical pulse, and understand that there is much more to Mendelssohn than the Violin Concerto. Their sets of the complete organ and choral music offer outstanding opportunities to explore Mendelssohn’s lesser known music at highly affordable prices. What more can we ask in this anniversary year?

Now see more of the city that was home to both Bach and Mendelssohn, in I am a camera - Leipzig
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L'Orgue Mystique - the images

Music and the visual arts have inspired each other for centuries.In the 19th century Mussorgsky, Liszt and other Romantics virtually created a separate genre of music inspired by art. In 1909 Rachmaninov's The Isle of the Dead had its origins in Arnold Boecklin's painting of the same name (above), and this was followed by Respighi's Botticelli Tryptich (from The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli) and Martinu's Frescoes of Piero della Francesca (from Piero Della Francesca's Discovery of the True Cross).

Although less common there are also examples of art works inspired by music. The French artist Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) created both a painting (L'Anniversaire. Souvenir de décembre 1875) and a set of fourteen lithographs inspited by Berlioz's musical output. Probably the most famous example of art based on music is the so-called 'Chagall Ceiling' in l'Opéra Garnier in Paris where Marc Chagall's famous paintings are inspired by nine musical works.


And visual art inspired by music is still very much alive today. My recent article 'L'Orgue Mystique' - the music paid homage to Charles Tournemire's extraordinary cycle of fifty-one organ pieces covering the whole Catholic liturgical year. Artist Tom Walker went considerably further in his homage to Tournemire's masterpiece, as he describes in his own words:

'The mystical radiance, tenderness and majesty of this music inspired me to respond visually with The Mystic Image, a corresponding cycle of 51 5-part pastel triptychs (each 100x125 cms) laid out in the order introit, offertory, elevation, communion and postlude. To reflect Tournemire's encompassing theme of light overcoming darkness I worked on black paper, each mark thus representing light. My intention was to evoke the atmosphere of the music within the context of the words of the chants whilst referring to elements of the composer's life and faith. Thus, the sea and rocks of his island retreat, Ouessant; the cathedrals he loved and his belief in the manifestation of God in Nature play essential parts in the image sequences.'


The two images above, and the one below, are from Tom Walker's cycle The Mystic Image. He has worked in almost all the different types of two-dimensional media since the mid 1960s, although he has specialised in pastel work since the mid 1980s. Most of his work between 1985 and 1995 was related to music. As well as the The Mystic Image other works from this period relate to the music of Jehan Alain, and Olivier Messiaen, and between 1991 and 2000, he painted a large mural (120’ x 12’) inspired by Claude Debussy's music.

All fifty-one of Tom Walker's The Mystic Image triptychs can be viewed on his excellent web site. They were created in the late 1980's, and were displayed in Minneapolis in 1989 and 1990 in conjunction with a complete performance of L'Orgue Mystique in its liturgical context. This cycle was played by some 50 different organists at the Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis. The organists included Timothy Tikker, Michael Ferguson, Lawrence Archbold and Kathy Handford, the latter was one of the main organisers and responsible for arranging the exhibition of the triptychs there. The Mystic Image has also been exhibited in numerous other churches and cathedrals in the UK, France, Holland, Germany and the USA.


Tom Walker has also created seven large paintings inspired by Tournemire's Sept Chorales-Poèmes pour les Sept Paroles du Christ of 1935. These can be seen at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Islington, London, where they are on permanent loan. They were toured extensively in the UK and across Europe, between 1993 and 1996, in conjunction with performances of the Chorales. This ended with a performance by Mark Brafield in Beauvais Cathedral in France in 1996. This is the cathedral that inspired Tournemire to write the Chorales, but they had never been performed there before.

Now read about L'Orgue Mystique - the music
Picture credits - Boecklin, The Isle of the Dead - Mezzo Mondo
L'Orgue Mystique, No. 28 – The Office for The Sacred Heart, No. 51 – The Office for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost "Te Deum laudamus", and No. 29 – The Office for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost - Tom Walker
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