Tom Winpenny - Complete Organ Music Vol. 1 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The music of the English composer John Gardner (1917-2011) - basically tonal and always impeccably crafted - is characterised by rhythmic vivacity and harmonic immediacy. His musical fingerprints come from his love of jazz, Renaissance and Baroque procedures and his mastery of imitative counterpoint; his use of established musical forms invests them with a quirky and distinctive harmonic idiom. This first album of two collecting his entire output of organ music presents not only his sly humour but also the staggering contrapuntal craftsmanship of his fugue on a theme by Anton Bruckner - one of the monuments of recent British writing for the organ.

Organ music holds a special affection for leading UK composer Judith Bingham, and the repertoire in this programme reflects a cross-section of her themes and work both recently composed and newly arranged.

The music of Arnold Cooke, born in Yorkshire in 1906, had already fallen into neglect by the time of his death 99 years later. Cooke was a prolific composer, with two operas, six symphonies, numerous concertos and a generous amount of chamber music to his credit - nor did he neglect the organ, as this album of his major organ pieces reveals. Cooke's style owes much to his teacher, Hindemith, not least since both men were natural contrapuntists, although there are also points of contact with Bartók and Shostakovich, and occasional touches of Walton's ceremonial sparkle and no-nonsense grandeur.