Michael Keeley - Organ Encyclopedia: Works for Organ 10 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This triumvirate of composers represents an essentially lyrical impulse in American music. Leonard Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles was completed in 1988 but had existed in some form since 1955. The cycle of songs about love and marriage was written for voice and piano (four-hands) but orchestrated, under Bernstein's supervision, by Bright Sheng, and premiered by Gerard Schwarz. Eclectic, exciting, jazzy, and Mahlerian, it reflects Bernstein in all his multi-faceted glory. Barber's concert overture is a vibrant work, fizzing with energy, whilst Diamond's Elegy offers a poignant, noble and at times violent lament for Ravel.

Michael Pohl - Organ Works [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/20/1999

In his short life (1839-72) Eduard Adolf Tod garnered a reputation as one of the finest organists of the day Liszt praised his playing, and he gave a recital in the Royal Albert Hall in the very year of it's opening. Most of Tod's handful of works for the organ - solo and as a duo partner - have not been recorded before; here they are joined by three other little-known German organ sonatas to give an overview of the genre as it evolved from it's well-behaved Mendelssohnian origins into late-Romantic grandeur. International organ virtuoso Dr Jan Lehtola is one the most successful and progressive Finnish organists of his generation. He has appeared with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Lahti Symphony, Tampere Philharmonic and Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestras and the St. Michel Strings. He has performed at many international festivals, including the Lahti Organ Festival, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, and the annual Festival of New Organ Music in London. He has worked with conductors including Kent Nagano, Juha Kangas, Sakari Oramo, Muhai Tang and Osmo Vänskä, amongst others. Dr Lehtola has also given recitals in leading European concert halls such as Gewandhaus in Leipzig and cathedrals and churches such as La Trinité in Paris, St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London.