Simon Johnson's program of organ music by César Franck offers two of the more familiar pieces in the repertoire, Cantabile and Pièce heroïque, and two transcriptions of orchestral works, Johnson's own version of the Symphony in D minor, and Daniel Roth's arrangement of the Symphonic Interlude from the oratorio Rédemption. While Cantabile and Pièce heroïque are popular selections, they are routine fare for organ recitals, and even though the meditative Symphonic Interlude is less well-known and worth hearing, it isn't ...
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Simon Johnson's program of organ music by César Franck offers two of the more familiar pieces in the repertoire, Cantabile and Pièce heroïque, and two transcriptions of orchestral works, Johnson's own version of the Symphony in D minor, and Daniel Roth's arrangement of the Symphonic Interlude from the oratorio Rédemption. While Cantabile and Pièce heroïque are popular selections, they are routine fare for organ recitals, and even though the meditative Symphonic Interlude is less well-known and worth hearing, it isn't especially compelling. The tour de force, however, is the symphony, and this transcription has much of the appeal of Franck's own Grand pièce symphonique and the organ symphonies of Charles-Marie Widor and Louis Vierne. Johnson's skillful registration is a reasonable translation of Franck's fairly homogenous tone colors, and the music fits the organ's disposition quite naturally, as if the symphony had been conceived in the first place for manuals and pedal board. In any event, Johnson's...
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Add this copy of Franck: Symphony in D Minor / Cantabile / Piece to cart. $33.25, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2013 by HYPERION RECORDS: CDA68046.