Rachmaninov: All-Night Vigil (Vespers) – London Symphony Chorus

   in Choir & Organ (Sep, 2016)
Shelves are beginning to groan under the accumulated weight of complete Reger surveys, this fourth volume completing Bernhard Buttmann’s 16-disc traversal. Taking centre stage here are the Suite no.2, Introduction, Passacaglia & Fugue, and D minor Phantasie and Fugue (opp. 72, 127 and 135b respectively), although the op.129 Neun Stücke make their own claim for attention on the wholly sympathetic III/53 Link organ of Ulm’s Pauluskirche. Buttmann’s tone too often errs on the side of reverence, a quality not helped by acoustics that sound somewhat distant in quieter moments, reverberant in louder passages. Even so, committed Regerians will want to add this to their shelves. …