FREE SAMPLE TRACK 1930 Skinner Organ, fully restored to “as new condition” by the A. Thompson-Allen Company of New Haven, CT
Ken Cowan performs a program spanning several periods and styles of music. While practically none of this music was composed for an American organ of the 1920s or 1930s, it achieves a tremendously beautiful effect, in the same way that the piano sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert communicate a broad range of emotion on a modern Steinway piano. Bach’s great Fantasy and Fugue in g minor and Jig Fugue demonstrate the transparent choruses of this Skinner Organ, as well as its rich tonal resources. Although the performance of pre-Romantic music on such a symphonic organ is now commonly considered heresy, it was very common at the time this instrument was designed and constructed. Contrasting is Lemare’s lighthearted Rondo a Capriccio (“A Study in Accents”), which requires an especially rapid Swell expression mechanism to achieve its nimble accents, unusual in the classical organ literature. The fantastically colorful Pastorale by Roger-Ducasse receives a performance among the most breathtaking in recent memory. Marcel Dupré’s Three Preludes and Fugues, Op. 7, Variations on a Noel, Op. 20 and Raffaele Manari’s rarely performed pedal etude on Salve Regina display Mr. Cowan's formidable instrumental command. Mr. Cowan’s art is fully demonstrated in this recording of a rare instrument with a comprehensive tonal pallet including gentle, beguiling and varied foundation tones, powerful and harmonically rich reeds and a bright and satisfying Diapason chorus. This is a disc intended for organists and non-organists alike who will enjoy experiencing a variety of masterworks performed on this warm and vibrant sounding Skinner instrument.
Bach: Fugue in G major (The Jig Fugue) |