Haydn / Wagner / Rachmaninoff / Mozart / Verdi / Cochereau: Transcriptions

   in Choir & Organ (Jul, 2015)
What pleasure there is to be found in this decidedly uneven compendium of transcriptions lies with the IV/67 Muhleisen organ of Notre-Dame de Bon Voyage, Cannes. Built as recently as 2009, on this showing it is a nimble and nuanced machine with a wide and expressive palette: plangently sweet-voiced in soloist Jean-Paul Imbert’s own transcription of La mort d’Isolde, clarion-like in the March from Aida, muscular and bold in Pierre Cochereau’s Improvisation Symphony. Imbert rarely rises to the occasion, and the English translation of his booklet notes is atrociously rendered (regrettably an all too common feature of BNL releases). …