Don Satz wrote:
>I'm looking for some feedback on discs of Pachelbel organ music. This
>seems to be a very active area over the past two or three years.
You're not kidding. I'm rather mazaed to see two ongoing surveys of his
organ music, in addition to a few individual discs. Dorian's set has
reached volume 11, and Centaur is close behind with ten volumes so far.
Wow.
>I'm aware of a series of volumes on Dorian performed by Bouchard,
>on Centaur performed by Payne, and on Naxos performed by Rubsam.
I can't comment on recordings I've heard, and these all fall into that
category. However, I have heard Rubsam in a number of his recordings for
Naxos, and while I don't have as much criticism of his playing as some
others, I do find them to be somewhat workmanlike. If they are the only
game in town, or the price is right, then his performance may be adequate.
My collection of Pachelbel organ works is spotty. I have pieces here and
there played by Helmut Winter and Francis Chapelet (long-deleted Harmonia
Mundi set called "Historic Organs" or something like that), Joseph Payne
(in a collection of German organ music on Naxos). Payne's performances
are fine on the Naxos discs.
>There's also a Virgin Classics disc performed by Werner Jacobs.
This is the only full disc of Pachelbel organ I have, and I think it's
great. If I remember correctly the critics at the time it was released
in 1990 agreed. It's a nice survey of his music, beautifully played on
a period organ. Recommended, unless you absolutely have to have all
the organ music. Recordings on the Dorian Discovery label are typically
(if not always) older recordings Dorian has licensed from various sources,
and often feature unknown artists. Not that this is necessarily a bad
thing, but I have several of the releases in the Discovery line, and have
found them to be somewhat uneven in both performance and sound quality.
Dorian is known for its audiophile quality recordings (many made in the
outstanding 125-year-old Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in New York), and
these don't quite meet that standard, and that's my two cents worth.
Dave
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