As a musician and organist, I'm a great believer in respecting individuality as well as scholarship. While I myself would not choose to play this piece in Virgil's wonderfully individual, creative, musical, and non-conformist style, I have the utmost respect for his unique insights into this great music. Others have tried to re-create his playing style, but in my experience, nobody has ever quite been able to do so as effectively or as artfully as Virgil himself. I love the sounds of French Cavaille-Coll organs, for which Franck conceived his organ works. But I also love the unique sounds of American organs built by E. M. Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner, and other fine American builders. American organists seldom have the opportunity to play organs that have the same kinds of unique sounds as the C-C organs in France. It follows, therefore, that we need to approach registration with the aim of making the instrument at hand sound its best in the service of the music. If we're lucky enough to have an American organ that IS able to successfully and beautifully re-create the C-C sound, fantastic. But inevitably, we'll most likely have to "think outside the box" on at least a few occasions, and that's okay, methinks. The bottom line, for me, is that we would all do well to listen to the many different ways of playing Franck's organ works beautifully. No one person will have a complete monopoly on the "perfect" interpretations, whatever that might be - if it exists. Though, for my tastes, I have always been especially drawn to the sublime recordings of the complete Franck organ works by Jeanne Demessieux, an amazing woman who died FAR too young. Anyway, as the saying goes, "to each their own!"
In the middle 70 's I lived in Houston, Tx. Once i drove with another Organ Buff to Victoria, Tx. to see Virgil Fox at that College. He of course was playing on an electronic organ. He came out on stage in a red silk & black cape & twerled around. Ah memories....
This is one of Virgil Fox's greater moments on the organ... He has left us a legacy of the art as HE saw it... Pure magnificence... Virgil took what resources he had and used them to the maximum... Nobody is quite like him nor NEVER will be.... May Our Heavenly Father shower down His blessings upon Him and hold him as a favored servant forever and ever... When I pass I hope to rectify an error that I made in youth.... I had the chance to meet him and did not... I never had the chance after that time...
Virgil Fox's playing at its best brings the French romantic literature to life! Listen to what he does to a melodic line! Can any organists of our time play a true legato? What a travesty that these great American romantic organs have not been preserved!
just as there is nothing like hearing a composer play his works, there is nothing like hearing an organist play an instrument he designed. there will never be another virgil. he brought the organ to the people and the "know-it-alls" disrespected him.
Definitely not a mindless organ student slave like so many pumped out of conservatories these days. Unique, creative, daring, inventive, musical, wonderful, sensational! .
You're spot on. Most students would learn more getting a score out of the library, going to a full rehearsal by a conductor you can respect and LISTEN to him prepare the great works, than all of the mindless, SPINELESS musicology courses in America combined.
He was a musicians musician... There's a reason we ALL still adore him..! Whenever I rework this piece I always go on a search to find a new GREAT recording... and I do find some... BUT nothing like this... and I'm always reminded about his "special" gift" when I FINALLY come back and listen to it...! (which I always do!) SHEER JOY!
Great rendition indeed! I heard Virgil Fox for the first time thanks to a Readers Digest Album "Organ Memories" Dr. J.W. Treat gave me while at Abilene Christian University. That album was also recorded on this Aeolian Skinner Organ at Riverside Church and the sound is also magnificent.
Franck completed his "trois chorals" on his deathbed. They mark a summit in the organ literature of the XIX° century, in spite of Mendelssohan, Liszt, Reger. The interpretation here is quite clear, the registrations are cleverly chosen.
A magnificent performance of one of the great works of the late romantic period. I found the rubato slightly disturbing in a few spots, but who can argue with its use by a master playing in period style? Great organ sound, too.
The “know it alls” disparaged Fox because they felt threatened by him. He plays Franck not with the literal registrations supplied by the composer, but orchestrates the piece according to what he hears in his mind’s ear. He follows in broad outline the kinds of sounds Franck had in mind. But that’s the way it should ideally be done, isn’t it?
Using composer set registrations will not work. Every organ is different, even between the "same" stops. This is one of Fox's real talents; registrations.
The pleurisy was either caused by, or aggravated by, the effects of a street accident earlier in 1890. Franck, it has been said, either failed or refused to see a doctor after being run over by a heavy horse-drawn cart or wagon. (Since X-rays as we know them now were not yet available, this would have made matters more difficult for the doctors even if they had been able to examine him!)
It's a bit much, but it's not boring or mawkish or maundering like so many performances of the piece. With the Virge music and life were one -- every performance was a celebration of life!
Fox was a regade. His technical skills were equalled by few of his age. He dared to take a piece and play it as he liked it - not according to accepted strict standard or established formats. He was laughed at but few organists of his ers including this time, had the ability to put such emotions into music. One thang that Fox did, was bring Classic Bach to the masses, Tens of thousands of kid listened to Fox play Back on his portable organ. How many of those went on to become classic music lovers and supporters of the King of Instruments will never be known. One thing is certain, he left his mark on the last of the hippies. It is such a shame that the church has such poor acoustics. Even Fox could not compensate for that. The world or organ lost a valued performer when Fox died (Cancer) He was a great man, wonderful person and magnificent - if flamboyant - performer.
Unfortunately, we allow all instrumentalists, EXCEPT ORGANISTS, to interpret as they will. it is wrong and, IMHO, no one has ever offered a considered explanation.
No, sadly they screw up the Cavaille Coll in Franck's church in Paris (st. Clotilde), not this one. I agree that infortunately today it's completely different from the one that CC built..
Years ago Bob Glasgow played this recording for several of us at his apartment in Ann Arbor late one night. He waxed eloquent about Virgil's playing of it.
Norma Stevlingson Who told you Cesar Franck(or anyone, for that matter) only: - want their compositions played on instruments built by one firm? - want one particular registration used precisely at one in particular spot, to the exclusion of all/any others? - regard the player as a pseudo-reproducing machine with nothing else to say, or permitted to say? - want strict/metronomic adherence to tempo one could set a stopwatch by? Tournemire had a lot to say about Franck's works but ah, what's the use...
+Chris M No one "told me" but it is obvious from the registrations in the scores (the original Durand) that the pieces were for either Ste. Clothilde or the Trocadero. Furthermore, the nastiness of your tone is not welcome.
There was nothing "nasty" in what I said. All Franck's works were either for Ste. Clothilde or the Trocadero Palace. Get out the score to the Chorals and listen to this with Franck's registrations there in plain view and then you will see that the registrations are not what Franck wished. It would have been possible at Riverside to come much closer. Was that too "nasty" for you?
'' Alas, Virgil didn't have the sound of CC organs in his ears so his registrations aren't as Franck wished.'' just plain wrong...virgil was in paris all of 1933 studying with dupre and vierne on 2 outstanding c-c organs
He grasps the skeletal structure of this work massively without any hesitation, any ambiguity. I respect his intelligence. But it lacks sublime and beauty Marchal realized.
When I was at Riverside Church in the 1960's It was Presbyterian. It says now it is interdenominational. So im not sure. I played that organ a few times when I was a teenager then. Only one day Virgil came along and slapped me in the face, told me to never touch the organ again. I played very well, even as a teenager. What a mentor HE was! If I knew then what I know now, I would have called the cops, had him arrested and gotten a good Jewish lawyer.
steve bournias Of course, if they know what they are doing. The church was open all day long to the public. The church is supported by the public. The public paid for that organ. No harm was ever done. The nuns used to say a hymn is worth 7 prayers. I played hymns on the organ, my way of praying a church.
During my college years I heard Fred Swann play the Riverside organ many times. The acoustics were funny: it's true there was little reverberation, but in person the space was far from dead...the organ sound seemed to come from everywhere.
@@mr.booker9263 I believe a lot of work has been done in Riverside church to improve the acoustics there. The organ there has divisions in various parts of the building which gives the "surround sound" experience. St Matthew's is only in one chamber with two openings into the chancel and one I believe to the west. I remember hearing the organ in St Matthew's and singing there before the aisles were closed off, and the change in acoustics dramatically changed the sound of the sound of the organ and the sound of the singing, not just of the choir but by the congregation as well. For the spoken word I appreciate clarity is vital, but for the organ and any choral music, the building has lost it's "bloom" and any sense of the "ethereal" that just enhances the experience of singing, playing or just listening to as someone in the congregation.
According to a posted statement of Riverside dated 2008, it is interdenominational and has been such from its inception in 1927. And responding to other postings in here, it has NEVER been a Baptist church nor a Presbyterian church nor an Episcopal church.
Well, I know for certain that Riverside Church is NOT an Episcopal parish. My understanding is that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. intended it to be either non-denominational or inter-denominational. He may well have been raised in a Baptist tradition, and my guess is that his general theological outlook and churchmanship traditions tended toward "high Baptist," but I'm not aware that Riverside was ever officially affiliated with any particular denomination. That may well have changed over the years.
As a musician and organist, I'm a great believer in respecting individuality as well as scholarship. While I myself would not choose to play this piece in Virgil's wonderfully individual, creative, musical, and non-conformist style, I have the utmost respect for his unique insights into this great music. Others have tried to re-create his playing style, but in my experience, nobody has ever quite been able to do so as effectively or as artfully as Virgil himself. I love the sounds of French Cavaille-Coll organs, for which Franck conceived his organ works. But I also love the unique sounds of American organs built by E. M. Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner, and other fine American builders. American organists seldom have the opportunity to play organs that have the same kinds of unique sounds as the C-C organs in France. It follows, therefore, that we need to approach registration with the aim of making the instrument at hand sound its best in the service of the music. If we're lucky enough to have an American organ that IS able to successfully and beautifully re-create the C-C sound, fantastic. But inevitably, we'll most likely have to "think outside the box" on at least a few occasions, and that's okay, methinks. The bottom line, for me, is that we would all do well to listen to the many different ways of playing Franck's organ works beautifully. No one person will have a complete monopoly on the "perfect" interpretations, whatever that might be - if it exists. Though, for my tastes, I have always been especially drawn to the sublime recordings of the complete Franck organ works by Jeanne Demessieux, an amazing woman who died FAR too young. Anyway, as the saying goes, "to each their own!"
a trick : you can watch movies at Kaldrostream. I've been using it for watching a lot of movies these days.
@Kane Dillon definitely, I've been using Kaldrostream for months myself :)
Now that's a perfect description -- 'Virgil's wonderfully individual, creative, musical, and non-conformist style.'
Fox's registrations were usually superb. It was one of his greatest talents.
@@PointyTailofSatan It really was. VF's unchanging top goal was expressiveness.
In the middle 70 's I lived in Houston, Tx. Once i drove with another Organ Buff to Victoria, Tx. to see Virgil Fox at that College. He of course was playing on an electronic organ.
He came out on stage in a red silk & black cape & twerled around. Ah memories....
This is one of Virgil Fox's greater moments on the organ... He has left us a legacy of the art as HE saw it... Pure magnificence... Virgil took what resources he had and used them to the maximum... Nobody is quite like him nor NEVER will be.... May Our Heavenly Father shower down His blessings upon Him and hold him as a favored servant forever and ever... When I pass I hope to rectify an error that I made in youth.... I had the chance to meet him and did not... I never had the chance after that time...
Virgil Fox's playing at its best brings the French romantic literature to life! Listen to what he does to a melodic line! Can any organists of our time play a true legato? What a travesty that these great American romantic organs have not been preserved!
just as there is nothing like hearing a composer play his works, there is nothing like hearing an organist play an instrument he designed. there will never be another virgil. he brought the organ to the people and the "know-it-alls" disrespected him.
Good sound reproduction for this magnificent organ and performance. Thank you!
vigi plays this beautifully yea man ,hard to beat
What amazing clarity and breathtaking colors!
Definitely not a mindless organ student slave like so many pumped out of conservatories these days. Unique, creative, daring, inventive, musical, wonderful, sensational! .
You're spot on. Most students would learn more getting a score out of the library, going to a full rehearsal by a conductor you can respect and LISTEN to him prepare the great works, than all of the mindless, SPINELESS musicology courses in America combined.
Hi my old friend! How are you doing?
He was a musicians musician... There's a reason we ALL still adore him..! Whenever I rework this piece I always go on a search to find a new GREAT recording... and I do find some... BUT nothing like this... and I'm always reminded about his "special" gift" when I FINALLY come back and listen to it...! (which I always do!) SHEER JOY!
Healy Willan: "What we need are fewer organists, and more musicians who play the organ."
A wonderful performance.
Great rendition indeed! I heard Virgil Fox for the first time thanks to a Readers Digest Album "Organ Memories" Dr. J.W. Treat gave me while at Abilene Christian University. That album was also recorded on this Aeolian Skinner Organ at Riverside Church and the sound is also magnificent.
Franck completed his "trois chorals" on his deathbed. They mark a summit in the organ literature of the XIX° century, in spite of Mendelssohan, Liszt, Reger. The interpretation here is quite clear, the registrations are cleverly chosen.
Comparable in individual expression to Jeanne Demessieux's performance, the highest compliment I can give.
she's amazing! THIS is stunning!
A magnificent performance of one of the great works of the late romantic period. I found the rubato slightly disturbing in a few spots, but who can argue with its use by a master playing in period style? Great organ sound, too.
Wonderful organ sound!
I heard this for the first time on an album by Dupre, and also the first part improvised as voluntary during communion. Great organ piece.
The “know it alls” disparaged Fox because they felt threatened by him. He plays Franck not with the literal registrations supplied by the composer, but orchestrates the piece according to what he hears in his mind’s ear. He follows in broad outline the kinds of sounds Franck had in mind. But that’s the way it should ideally be done, isn’t it?
Using composer set registrations will not work. Every organ is different, even between the "same" stops. This is one of Fox's real talents; registrations.
FABULEUX !
Celestial sound!
J ADORE !!
The pleurisy was either caused by, or aggravated by, the effects of a street accident earlier in 1890. Franck, it has been said, either failed or refused to see a doctor after being run over by a heavy horse-drawn cart or wagon. (Since X-rays as we know them now were not yet available, this would have made matters more difficult for the doctors even if they had been able to examine him!)
wow
It's a bit much, but it's not boring or mawkish or maundering like so many performances of the piece. With the Virge music and life were one -- every performance was a celebration of life!
I'm sure I can see the clouds moving.
Fox was a regade. His technical skills were equalled by few of his age. He dared to take a piece and play it as he liked it - not according to accepted strict standard or established formats. He was laughed at but few organists of his ers including this time, had the ability to put such emotions into music. One thang that Fox did, was bring Classic Bach to the masses, Tens of thousands of kid listened to Fox play Back on his portable organ. How many of those went on to become classic music lovers and supporters of the King of Instruments will never be known. One thing is certain, he left his mark on the last of the hippies. It is such a shame that the church has such poor acoustics. Even Fox could not compensate for that. The world or organ lost a valued performer when Fox died (Cancer) He was a great man, wonderful person and magnificent - if flamboyant - performer.
Unfortunately, we allow all instrumentalists, EXCEPT ORGANISTS, to interpret as they will. it is wrong and, IMHO, no one has ever offered a considered explanation.
@@josephgraif2588 I think (or hope) a LOT of that is starting to change... sooo much boring playing out there...
that organ has such solid sonority. why did they screw it up?
No, sadly they screw up the Cavaille Coll in Franck's church in Paris (st. Clotilde), not this one. I agree that infortunately today it's completely different from the one that CC built..
JE me "protège" depuis des années " DIEU ME CONNAIT !
Years ago Bob Glasgow played this recording for several of us at his apartment in Ann Arbor late one night. He waxed eloquent about Virgil's playing of it.
Norma Stevlingson Who told you Cesar Franck(or anyone, for that matter) only:
- want their compositions played on instruments built by one firm?
- want one particular registration used precisely at one in particular spot, to the exclusion of all/any others?
- regard the player as a pseudo-reproducing machine with nothing else to say, or permitted to say?
- want strict/metronomic adherence to tempo one could set a stopwatch by?
Tournemire had a lot to say about Franck's works but ah, what's the use...
+Chris M No one "told me" but it is obvious from the registrations in the scores (the original Durand) that the pieces were for either Ste. Clothilde or the Trocadero. Furthermore, the nastiness of your tone is not welcome.
you are wrong...virgil srudied in paris with dupre and vierne and certainly had c-c organs in his ear
There was nothing "nasty" in what I said. All Franck's works were either for Ste. Clothilde or the Trocadero Palace. Get out the score to the Chorals and listen to this with Franck's registrations there in plain view and then you will see that the registrations are not what Franck wished. It would have been possible at Riverside to come much closer. Was that too "nasty" for you?
'' Alas, Virgil didn't have the sound of CC organs in his ears so his registrations aren't as Franck wished.'' just plain wrong...virgil was in paris all of 1933 studying with dupre and vierne on 2 outstanding c-c organs
He grasps the skeletal structure of this work massively without any hesitation, any ambiguity. I respect his intelligence.
But it lacks sublime and beauty Marchal realized.
Dude, I'm from NYC Riverside is not a baptist church.
it is was and was not ans is again baptist
When I was at Riverside Church in the 1960's It was Presbyterian. It says now it is interdenominational. So im not sure. I played that organ a few times when I was a teenager then. Only one day Virgil came along and slapped me in the face, told me to never touch the organ again. I played very well, even as a teenager. What a mentor HE was! If I knew then what I know now, I would have called the cops, had him arrested and gotten a good Jewish lawyer.
shud people walk in and play without permission?
Absolutely not
steve bournias Of course, if they know what they are doing. The church was open all day long to the public. The church is supported by the public. The public paid for that organ. No harm was ever done. The nuns used to say a hymn is worth 7 prayers. I played hymns on the organ, my way of praying a church.
Such a shame the acoustics are so awful - amazing how such a large space can be so dry. It does nothing to enhance the organ or the sung word!
The ceiling was sealed in the 90's, greatly enhancing the acoustics. Much different today than during Virgil's time.
During my college years I heard Fred Swann play the Riverside organ many times. The acoustics were funny: it's true there was little reverberation, but in person the space was far from dead...the organ sound seemed to come from everywhere.
@@mr.booker9263 I believe a lot of work has been done in Riverside church to improve the acoustics there. The organ there has divisions in various parts of the building which gives the "surround sound" experience. St Matthew's is only in one chamber with two openings into the chancel and one I believe to the west. I remember hearing the organ in St Matthew's and singing there before the aisles were closed off, and the change in acoustics dramatically changed the sound of the sound of the organ and the sound of the singing, not just of the choir but by the congregation as well. For the spoken word I appreciate clarity is vital, but for the organ and any choral music, the building has lost it's "bloom" and any sense of the "ethereal" that just enhances the experience of singing, playing or just listening to as someone in the congregation.
KPN,nl
Riverside church is NOT Baptist; it Episcopal
Very nice indeed!!
Riverside was founded as a Baptist Church be the Rockefeller who built it
According to a posted statement of Riverside dated 2008, it is interdenominational and has been such from its inception in 1927. And responding to other postings in here, it has NEVER been a Baptist church nor a Presbyterian church nor an Episcopal church.
@@uriahpeep9036 amazing how people state "facts" based on complete ignorance.
Well, I know for certain that Riverside Church is NOT an Episcopal parish. My understanding is that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. intended it to be either non-denominational or inter-denominational. He may well have been raised in a Baptist tradition, and my guess is that his general theological outlook and churchmanship traditions tended toward "high Baptist," but I'm not aware that Riverside was ever officially affiliated with any particular denomination. That may well have changed over the years.