Alessandro Scarlatti: Messa Clementina – Le Parnasse Francais

   in Choir & Organ (Mar, 2016)
Two (more) recordings of Elgar’s Organ Sonata and Vesper Voluntaries, and two attractive instruments, with Merton’s new Dobson organ and Leeds’s revived 1904 Norman & Beard both sounding cohesive and convincing. The Merton organ is particularly interesting: with its gutsy unison foundations (the Great 8ft Diapasons just slightly too articulate?), convincingly Victorian reeds and almost ‘Father’ Willis-like upperwork and Corno di Bassetto, Elgar is clearly its ideal repertoire.

Both players also seem particularly at home in the music. Nicholas’s playing is more dramatic in general and he perhaps finds a more convincing orchestral sweep in the Sonata in particular, though it must be noted that neither he nor Justin is really …