Mass of the Eternal Flame: New Music by Ēriks Ešenvalds and Rachel Laurin (CD Review)

 by Karl Nehring

Ešenvalds: Mass of the Eternal Flame; Lux Æterna; Stars; The Heavens’ Flock; O Salutaris Hostia; Salutation; Who Can Sail Without the Wind; Laurin: Dedisti Domine, Op. 85; Diptych, Op. 107 – I. Bucolico II. Con fuoco. The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Houston (Robert Simpson, Canon for Music, conductor); The Treble Choir of Houston at Christ Church Cathedral (Marianna Parnas-Simpson, conductor); Thomas Marvil, organ; Daryl Robinson, organ; with Paragon Brass; Craig Hauschildt, percussion; Laura Smith, harp. Acis APL53868

 

It was back in 2020 that I first came across the music of the music of the contemporary Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds (b. 1977) on a remarkably beautiful Naxos release titled Translations, which featured utterly convincing sonics courtesy of former Stereophile magazine editor, John Atkinson (you can read our review here). Although not particularly long in duration at just over twenty minutes, his Mass of the Eternal Flame is large in its sonic scope and impact. Organ, brass, and chorus combine with great effect, producing a sense of hopeful, positive faith and energy. As Ešenvalds writes in the liner booklet, “it is inspiring to me tom know that in Houston, Texas, there is also a choir with faith in God in their hearts and a true passion for expressing the Good News through music.” You can feel that passion in this recording. 

The other works by Ešenvalds sustain the reverential atmosphere of the Mass, the brief (2:59) Lux Æterna for choir only, then Stars featuring the other-wordly sound of The Treble Choir with their voices augmented by the ringing of water-tuned glasses – a celestial combination indeed! Following the gorgeous The Heavens’ Flock performed by the Cathedral Choir. The Treble Choir continues to weave its spell in O Salutaris Hostia, this time with solo voices added to the mix. The Cathedral Choir returns for the composer’s settings of a poem by the Bengali poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore, Salutation, which adopts a more subdued tone, an attitude of prayer and supplication. The final piece by Ešenvalds, Who Can Sail Without the Wind, finds the Treble Choir accompanied by a harp. As the title implies, it is a song of parting; actually, it is a Swedish folk song, so something of a departure from the more religious orientation of the previous compositions. However, it does not feel entirely out of place.

The program continues with a pair of compositions by the late Canadian composer and organist Rachel Laurin (1961-2023). Dedisti Domine is a motet that she composed for the 50th anniversary of her parish in Ottawa, Canada. It is one of the few choral pieces that she wrote, and features a Latin text sung here by the Cathedral Choir and accompanied by Thomas Mervil on organ. The piece takes the listener back to the more religious atmosphere of the Ešenvalds Mass, but with a somewhat different slant. 

The CD closes with Laurin’s Diptych, a work for organ in two parts, both of which are played by organist Daryl Robinson. The first, designated Bucolico, comprises five minutes of relatively calm, contemplative music, similar to what one might hear played in church. The second section, Con fuoco, gets more energetic, more virtuosic – out of church, into the recital hall, bringing the program to a rousing if somewhat disconnected finish. To be honest, however, I’m a bit puzzled as to why an organ piece was added to the program of choral music; it just doesn’t quite fit in. Unfortunately, in this context it just seems – and sounds – tacked on. It is enjoyable music in itself, but perhaps the producers would have been better advised to leave it off the program and leave us with an all-choral release. Still, this is an album well worth recommending for the sheer excellence of the works it contains by Ēriks Ešenvalds (and the Laurin choral work), which are outstanding.

Organ Spectacular (CD review)

David Briggs, organist. Delos DE 3241.

The sell here is that Delos Records bills the disc as the "Inaugural recording on the world's largest church organ." English organist and composer David Briggs plays the organs (there are two--one in the back of the church and one in front) of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles in six compositions demonstrating the power of the mighty beasts.

Producer and recording engineer John Eargle writes that the Dolby Surround technique he used "enhances the listening experience by reproducing an ambient sound field more closely approaching that of a musical performance in a reverberant space." I have the utmost respect for Mr. Eargle's work, but that "reverberant space" he speaks of needs to be toned down on this recording--way down. The sound is appropriately big all right: big, big, and more big, but it's also soft and distant and somewhat unfocused. I have to admit here that I am not a fan of solo organ music to begin with, so, yes, I'm showing my bias. Maybe this is exactly what the world's largest church organs do sound like in this church. However, it isn't like any other organ recording in my collection, which all sound much more clearly defined in spite of hall ambience; nor is it like any live church organ music I've ever experienced, like, say, the organ of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, with which I'm fairly familiar. Of course, it's only one organ, not two.

David Briggs

Anyway, of the six works performed on the disc, it's hard to tell why Mr. Briggs chose his own improvisations on an old Lutheran chorale, "Ein Feste Burg," to open the program. It is a twenty-three minute work that seems primarily designed to test one's patience. Of course, Mr. Briggs is a noted improviser, at the time of the recording in 1999 a Visiting Tutor in Improvisation at the Royal Northern College of Music, so that may explain it.

The rest of the pieces have more substance, although Briggs's playing is a little conservative, so don't expect the music to come to life as it might have under more-flamboyant (and more-controversial) players like Virgil Fox or E. Power Biggs. So, depending on your preference in organ playing (modest or splashy), you take your chances. For me, Briggs seemed a consummate artist in most of the pieces, although Walton's "Orb and Sceptre" march seemed so forward it was almost deafening yet so distant we have to squint over the crowds to see the music performed; odd.

Be that as it may, Faure's "Shylock: V. Nocturne," Nevin's "Will o' the Wisp," and Vierne's "Pieces de Fantasie: Carillon de Westminster" come off better, especially the latter with its playful takes on the chimes of Big Ben. Then, the program ends with another long piece, Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm, which in four movements has its ups and downs (fortunately, mostly ups). Especially if you're a dedicated organ lover, you'll probably enjoy it. 

I'd have to say this disc is designed mainly for dedicated organ lovers, or for those curious to hear what these particular, really big organs sound like in surround audio; if, in fact, this IS what they really sound like, regardless of the number of channels. Non organ lovers, though, may safely pass.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:

Organ Polychrome (HDCD review)

The French School. Jan Kraybill, organ. Reference Recordings RR-133.

Can you really think of anyone you'd rather have make an organ record than Reference Recordings? Well, anyone you'd rather have making any recording than Reference Recordings. For over thirty years they've been producing some of the best audiophile recordings around, and their current release, Organ Polychrome: The French School, with organist Jan Kraybill is among their finest-sounding releases.

To quote from RR's notes, Ms. Kraybill "regularly plays and oversees the care of the three largest pipe organs in the Kansas City metro area: the Community of Christ Auditorium's 113-rank Aeolian-Skinner (installed in 1959) and Temple's 102-rank Casavant (1993), and the 102-rank Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant (2011) at the Kauffman Center's Helzberg Hall. At the Kauffman Center, she performs and hosts guest organists in both solo and collaborative musical events, including regular appearances with a major tenant of the Center, the Kansas City Symphony and Chorus. As a junior in high school in Colby, Kansas, Jan Kraybill performed her first European piano recital in Andover, England. She earned education and piano performance degrees from Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, and her doctorate in organ performance is from the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. In 2010 she earned the Fellow certificate from the American Guild of Organists, the highest certification available for organists. Dr. Kraybill maintains an active concert career, having appeared as a soloist and collaborative artist throughout the United States and in Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Poland, Russia, South Korea, and Tahiti; she has been featured at regional and national conventions of the AGO and other musicians'
organizations."

In Organ Polychrome: The French School, Ms. Kraybill plays music intended to show off all the power and glory of the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ. She does so splendidly; it is all quite effective. The program includes the Allegro from Symphony No.6 in G minor by Charles-Marie Wider (1844-1937); a world premiere of Priere (Prelude in G minor) by Florent Schmitt (1870-1958); the Allegro and Pas vite from Deux danses a Agni Yavishta by Jehan Alain (1911-1940); Variations de Concert by Joseph Bonnet (1884-1944); Scherzo by Maurice Durufle (1902-1986); Prelude et Fugue in G minor by Marcel Dupre (1886-1971); Piece heroque by Cesar Franck (1822-1890); Caprice in B flat by Felix-Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911); several items from Pieces de fantaisie by Louis Vierne (1870-1937); and the Grand-Choeur dialogue from Six pieces by Eugene Gigout (1844-1925).

Starting with the Widor number is like starting a concert with an overture. It's big, it's colorful, it grabs you by the throat. Ms. Kraybill doesn't overplay it, though, or make it sound too bombastic; it just works as a good curtain-raiser. Then, Ms. Kraybill follows the big Widor tune with a world-premiere recording from Schmitt. He wrote it around the turn of the twentieth century, and it's quite sweet and expressive. Indeed, Ms. Kraybill's playing is also sweet and expressive, robust when needed, sensitive at other times. Very entertaining.

And so it goes, with a variety of selections geared toward exhibiting all of the organ's many facets (and Ms. Kraybill's many performing talents). The delicate Alain piece is a special standout, with its vaguely Asian motifs and soft bass notes that wash over the listener like huge, warm waves at a beach. Then, too, Franck's well-known Piece heroique sounds strikingly handsome on this most-striking organ, producing a joyously successful result. And speaking of joy, the Guilmant track displays a wonderfully light, bouncy rhythm that's hard to dislike. Lastly, Ms. Kraybill goes out the way she came in, with a big, robust reading of the Gigout work that leaves the rafters rattling.

Producers Marina A. Ledin, Victor Ledin, and Marcia Gordon Martin and engineer Keith O. Johnson made the album in 24-bit HDCD for Reference Recordings at Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas City, Missouri in June 2013. Unlike the last few organ recordings I listened to, which were swimming in cavernous hall resonance, this one exhibits just enough reverberation to let us know we're in a concert hall and show off the room acoustics yet also emphasizes the detail and clarity of the organ. The instrument sounds rich, wide-ranging, realistically distanced, deep, full-throated, powerful, and lifelike. Of course, we also get the all-important bass so favored of organ fans; the organ gets down to room-rocking frequencies in select tracks. This is obviously a recording that organ fanciers will enjoy.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here: