Mcdowall, Guilmant, Sebastian, Macc: The Usher Hall Organ Vol II

   in Choir & Organ (May, 2015)
Anyone familiar with John Kitchen’s previous offering from Edinburgh’s Usher Hall will need no encouragement to snap up this long overdue second volume. A decade on, Harrison & Harrison’s restoration of the estimable 1914 Norman & Beard V/63 organ sounds every bit as fresh, vital and flexible. As before, the wide-ranging programme takes a something-for-everyone approach and, also as before, Kitchen despatches each and all with performances that blend aesthetic nuance with bravura showmanship. Bach’s Passacaglia & Fugue (BWV 582), three movements from Widor’s Fifth Symphony and Wesley’s Holsworthy Church Bells sit comfortably alongside the delectable curios of Hamish MacCunn’s The Land of the Mountain and the Flood, Christopher Maxim’s ‘Daisy, …