ReviewsLiszt: Fantasia and Fugue on Ad nos, ad salutarem undam S259 These two immense masterpieces from the height of Romanticism in the 1850s make a fine coupling, each setting out challenges which stretch the technical, musical and interpretative powers of the finest organists. It has to be said at once that Robert Costin, playing the rarely-recorded fine Norman and Beard instrument of 1906, in Wellington, New Zealand, gives notably impressive accounts of both works, utilising the relatively vast range of colours available through this organ to expressive impact. Although Liszt died 125 years ago, his importance has only in recent decades come to receive anything like the recognition his genius deserves, and even today his significance is by no means as fully appreciated as it ought to be. When one considers the impact a half-hour continuous work of such wide-ranging expression as this must have made 160 years ago, then one can begin to understand the delay in the full appreciation of Liszt: even today his Fantasia and Fugue on ’Ad nos’ is not a relatively easily-grasped work – it demands concentration from the listener and concentration and application from the performer, which in the latter instances it receives here from Robert Costin. This is a strikingly impressive performance, as is that of Reubke’s Sonata, which appeared six or so years after Liszt’s work, in 1857. There can surely be no doubt as to Liszt’s influence on the younger man, but although Reubke was only 24 when he died from tuberculosis in 1858, he was already an individual voice, cruelly taken from the world of music too soon. In this work also, Robert Costin shows himself to be a player in total technical command, as well as being a searching and impressive interpreter whose registration and sense of dramatic juxtaposition in these major works reveal a very gifted musician. The recording quality is very successful indeed, and all in all this CD is most strongly recommended. One looks forward to further explorations of repertoire from this period by this artist. Robert Matthew-Walker Liszt & Reubke American Record Guide Review Costin, trained at the Royal Academy of Music and Cambridge, plays this brief program on the 4-57 stop organ (Norman & Beard 1906, restored 1986) in Wellington Town Hall, New Zealand. Both selections are truly symphonic in nature, requiring ample technique and an instrument with extensive specifications...Costin controls the tempo very well in Ad Nos (30:24), with an energetic opening and a very subdued and leisurely adagio section. The fugal conclusion is fine. There are a few breaks in continuity owing to the limited combination system, requiring some extra hands to help with page turning and stop manipulation. Miking seems to be quite close, which allows the quietest portions to come through. The Reubke fares as well. Its sections follow selected passages from the Psalm, creating musical reflections on the text. Both compositions are performed intelligently and with musicality. Costin’s tempos and registrations are mainstream. A very respectable interpretation. Donald Metz, American Record Guide, 26th November 2009 Robert Costin at the Wellington Town Hall It’s all too human a tendency to take familiar things for granted, no matter how intrinsically splendid or significant these things might be. Such a splendid and significant object is the magnificent organ in the Wellington Town Hall, known by sight to generations of concertgoers, but, alas, more rarely by sound. Built in 1906 by Norman and Beard Ltd., a renowned London and Norwich firm, and then extensively refurbished eighty years later, it has become the country’s most significant and historic organ of its type, maintaining its original specification, pneumatic action and electrical blowing equipment, characteristics which of course endear it all the more to lovers of the instrument and the repertoire. It’s played occasionally, but far less than its qualities merit, mostly due to changes in musical tastes rendering its repertoire somewhat unfashionable. Thanks to a recent CD from Atoll Records, featuring music written to exploit the capabilities of an instrument such as the Town Hall organ, we can experience something of the beauty, excitement and grandeur of the organ’s sound-world. The player is English-born Robert Costin, currently director of music at Ardingly College, West Sussex, and previously organist at both St Paul’s Cathedral in Wellington and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland. A previous Atoll CD featured his playing of music by English composer Herbert Howells on the Dunedin Town Hall Organ (Atoll ACD606), and garnered excellent international reviews. This present recording, containing music by two of the nineteenth-century’s greatest composers for the instrument, Franz Liszt and Julius Reubke, has already received comparable praise both here and abroad. The Fantasia and Fugue for organ on Ad nos ad salutarem undam was Liszt’s first work for the instrument, and was partly inspired by an invitation to the composer to write a work for the inaugural recital on the rebuilt organ at Merseberg Cathedral, at the time the largest organ in Germany. Liszt was to write several subsequent pieces for performance on the Merseberg organ, among them the famous Prelude and Fugue on the Name BACH. He based the earlier work on a chorale melody from an opera by Meyerbeer, Le Prophéte, staged in Paris in 1849, a grandiose work of quasi-religious sentiment, dealing with the Anabaptist revolt in Germany in the 16th Century. Liszt had, in fact, been commissioned to transcribe a number of scenes from the opera for piano, and produced a version of Ad nos ad salutarem undam at the same time, after viewing the opera himself in Dresden in 1850. He dedicated the work to Meyerbeer, but undertook to revise the work several times before its final publication and premiere in 1855 in Merseberg Cathedral, performed by Alexander Winterberger.= Liszt’s work is a thirty-minute tour de force for the instrument. Though in a continuous single movement the music, like the composer’s B Minor Piano Sonata, delineates clearly defined episodes, the first of which is titled Fantasia, a powerful and dramatic exposition that enables Costin to show off the Wellington organ’s more spectacular characteristics. In particular, the build-up in this section leading to a series of fanfares at 5’16” has a positively scalp-prickling effect on this magnificent recording. Meyerbeer’s chorale theme, referred to by Liszt in fragmented form during this first section, comes into its own during the F-sharp Adagio, where it is played in full, the music ethereal and beguiling throughout the composer’s other-worldly explorations. The sudden entry of a series of diminished seventh chords at the final allegro’s beginning comes as a terrific shock to the system – you have been warned! An energetic double fugue framed by suitably big-boned statements of the theme brings the work to a stirring and foundation-shaking close. A contemporary of Liszt, Julius Reubke’s was a tragically short-lived career, the composer dying of tuberculosis in 1858 at the age of twenty-four. He studied with Liszt in Weimar for two years, and his organ work Sonata on the 94th Psalm dates from 1857, the young man himself premiering the work that year at the same Merseberg Cathedral as where Liszt’s work was first given. Following the influence of his teacher, Reubke’s work is in one tightly-constructed movement, and has a programmatic content, with verses from the 94th Psalm printed in the score’s first edition, dealing with the idea of the Lord God rewarding the just and punishing the wicked. Listening to this skilfully integrated musical construction makes one regret all the more Reubke’s loss to the world at an early age – the only other major work he completed was a Piano Sonata. In terms of technical accomplishment and integrated musical thinking he showed himself in these two works the potential equal of his great master. Costin’s skilful manipulation of the organ’s amazing colouristic variety is again a feature in this work – after the opening movement’s dramatic exposition, the central Adagio’s long-breathed themes seem at times the stuff of dreams, with Reubke’s explorations taking this listener’s sensibilities to far-off realms of feeling and imagination. The contrast with the stern, imposing outer-movement frameworkings is stunningly delivered here, unerringly caught by Wayne Laird’s wide-ranging and beautifully-focused Atoll recording. I feel the disc will be an ear-opener for those concert-goers who, over the years, have often gazed upon the resplendent construction of the Town Hall organ, wondering “how it sounds”. Now’s their chance to find out just what the grand old instrument can do. Review by Peter Mechen, Middle C No 4 Part 1 April-May 2009
Liszt & Reubke MusicWeb Review Virtuoso English organist Robert Costin presents two great mid-19th German classics from Liszt and Reubke on the magnificent romantic symphonic organ of Wellington Town Hall, New Zealand. In the notes Costin describes the instrument as, “…a very fine, and extremely rare example of an English symphonic style organ”. The organ of Wellington Town Hall was built in 1906 at a cost of £5000 by the eminent firm Norman and Beard Ltd. of London and Norwich. It was almost de rigueur in the late 1800s and early 1900s in many countries for a prestigious public building to have a substantial organ constructed. Norman and Beard benefited from this fervour for organs and were the builders of the organs at Norwich Cathedral (1899), Cheltenham College (1905), Winchester College Chapel (1908), Emmanuel College Chapel, Cambridge (1909), Usher Hall, Edinburgh (1914) and also the organ of Johannesburg Town Hall in South African. In June 1901 the foundation stone of the Town Hall at Wellington, New Zealand was laid by the Duke of Cornwall and York, who later became King George V with construction commencing in May 1902. The Wellington Town Hall is recognised throughout the world for its wonderful acoustics; often referred to as near perfect. In the 1970-80s a successful campaign was fought against the possible demolition of the Town Hall. Subsequently the organ was restored in 1985/86 and its original specifications have been retained. For the technically minded this splendid Norman and Beard organ consists of four manuals and pedals, 57 speaking stops and 13 couplers. Liszt's first work for organ the Fantasia and Fugue on the chorale ‘Ad nos, ad salutarem undam', S.259 originated from his highly productive early period in Weimar. This version of the score came about as a result of a commission to write a work for the inaugural recital of the magnificent organ reconstructed by Friedrich Ladegast at the Merseburg Cathedral. Liszt visited the Merseburg Cathedral organ a number of times before it was completed in 1855, an instrument that in fact inspired several of his organ compositions. The theme for the Fantasia and Fugue is based on a chorale from Giacomo Meyerbeer's highly successful French Grand Opera Le Prophète (The Prophet) in 5 acts from 1849 to a libretto by the eminent Eugène Scribe. Robert Costin writes that Liszt, “went to see the opera (Le Prophète) himself in Dresden and was impressed by much of Meyerbeer's music…Meyerbeer's melody clearly intrigued Liszt; its harmonic and melodic characteristics permeated every aspect of the work, lending it an impressive structural coherence”. The Fantasia and Fugue was published in 1852 as the last of a set of four pieces entitled Illustrations du Prophète, S.414 (1849/50); the first three of the set were for piano. Liszt biographer the composer Humphrey Searle states that the Fantasia and Fugue, “…is certainly not an operatic fantasy. It is based on a chorale sung by three Anabaptists in the first act of the opera, where they call the people to seek re-baptism in the healing water.”A Meyerbeer's Latin text sung by the trio of Anabaptists Ad nos, ad salutarem undam, iterum venite miseri ad nos, as nos venite populi can be translated as To us, to the water of salvation, come to us again, you who are wretched, come to us, you people. Liszt dedicated the score to Meyerbeer and undertook several revisions on the Fantasia and Fugue before its 1855 première performance by soloist Alexander Winterberger at Merseburg Cathedral. The Fantasia and Fugue on the chorale ‘Ad nos, ad salutarem undam' is a substantial score lasting just over thirty minutes. Cast in a single continuous movement the score has three discernable sections: Fantasia, Adagio and Fugue. Part of the chorale theme, that was Meyerbeer's own, is located at the start of the opening Fantasia section. Here I was struck by the power and terrific resonance of the Norman and Beard organ. The complete chorale theme is heard in the Adagio in F-sharp, sometimes known as Liszt's mystical key. I loved Costin's subtle playing in the meditative Adagio section that has a rather remote feel. Drama abounds in the final section a muscular and vigorous double fugue leading to the exultant conclusion. A recommendable alternative version of the Liszt's Fantasia and Fugue is performed with drama and assurance by Andreas Rothkopf on the Wilhelm Sauer organ of the Evangelische Stadtkirche, Bad Homburg, Germany on Naxos 8.555079. The son of an organ builder Julius Reubke only lived a short life before being struck down in his mid-twenties with tuberculosis. Two years before his untimely death in 1858 Reubke had studied with Liszt at Weimar following a recommendation from Hans von Bülow. Liszt took Reubke under this wing and allowed the young man to live at his Altenburg house. I first came across Reubke's music hearing his Piano Sonata in B flat minor (1857) a couple of years ago at a recital at my local concert society. Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm from 1857 has a substantial single movement span in three sections. It lasts around twenty six minutes and has considerable programmatic elements. The first edition of Reubke's score contained printed verses from the 94th Psalm that were closely linked to the score's movements. Bearing a dedication to Professor Carl Riedel, the composer gave the première of the score on the Friedrich Ladegast organ at Merseburg Cathedral in June 1857. I'm not sure how often Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm is played today. The world famous organist Sir George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987) who served at the Temple Church, London for sixty years had the Reubke score in his repertoire. Thalben-Ball first played the work in 1918 on the Father Smith organ (destroyed by bombing in 1941) at a public recital at St. Clement Danes, The Strand, London. There is a recording of Thalben-Ball playing the Fugue from Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm on a recording of ‘British Organists of the 1920s'. In the opening section of the Sonata on the 94th Psalm Robert Costin provides a heady kaleidoscope of mood and instrumental colour. The central section Adagio is steeped with a sacred character. I was struck by Reubke's adventurous writing especially the dark and shadowy excursion to the low registers of the organ at 2:28-2:59. Brisk and joyously uplifting the final section contains closing bars that aptly display the rich and powerful sonority of the instrument. Soloist Robert Costin who studied at the Royal Academy of Music and Pembroke College, Cambridge is currently director of music at Ardingly College, West Sussex. In these scores by Liszt and Reubke, the assured Costin avoids the temptation to rush giving the music ample time to breath. Displaying consummate control he expertly demonstrates the range and luxuriant tone colours of the Norman and Beard organ at Wellington. Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International, May 2009
International Record Review of Liszt & Reubke CD, February 2009 The pairing on disc of Reubke’s only major work for organ with Liszt’s great Fantasy on a theme from Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète makes good sense…[Costin] is certainly not short in either work on technical bravura or breadth of vision…As an interpretation this is certainly a strong performance, re-creating much of the visionary impact of Reubke’s depiction of verses from Psalm 94…Costin throws all caution to the wind in a brilliant virtuoso account of the Sonata’s concluding Fugue. Marc Rochester
Liszt & Reubke Organ Works played by Robert Costin at Wellington Town Hall Organ This, Robert Costin's 3rd CD, is a coupling of virtuoso works played on one of New Zealand's major heritage instruments. Robert returns to the 1906 Norman & Beard on which he recorded his first CD in 2003 but this time, rather than a selection of organ favourites, he has focussed on two major symphonic works from the romantic repertoire. By the 1850s Liszt had largely retired from his early career as a piano recitalist and was based in Weimar where he was encouraged to take an interest in organ composition and performance. The work recorded here, his 'Ad Nos, ad salutarem undam', was commissioned for the dedication of a rebuilt organ encapsulating the growing romantic principles, at Merseberg Cathedral. The work, which evolved into the final form after some revisions of previous works, was based on a melody from Meyerbeer's opera Le Prophète which Liszt developed into a symphonic poem, clearly with orchestral resources and colouring in mind to exploit the resources of the rebuilt organ. Liszt's technical keyboard mastery is reflected in passages of dazzling complexity throughout the work. Julius Reubke, the son of an organ builder, became a favoured pupil of Liszt in the Weimar years after attending the Berlin Conservatory. His unfortunately early death from tuberculosis was deeply regretted by Liszt and has robbed us of what should surely have been exceptional music. Only two works survive in the repertoire, a piano sonata and the work recorded here – his organ sonata 'On the 94th Psalm' which Reubke himself played at Merseberg Cathedral. The single movement work comprises a linked series of programmatic reflections on selected verses of the psalm and, like Liszt's Ad nos, is very symphonic in style with extended sections of great technical brilliance. The symphonic character of both these works make the Wellington Town Hall organ an excellent choice, with its wealth of English romantic symphonic colours. However, the limited combination system poses some problems in fully exploiting this tonal resource, and I note that both Douglas Mews and Richard Prothero were engaged as page turners and assistants. Roy Tankersley also assisted with some last minute reed tuning. The recording captures the range of tonal colours and the dynamics effectively, yet is sufficiently distant in perspective to allow a feeling of the hall environment to be conveyed and the frequency range has adequately recorded the profundity of bass notes. Robert Costin's performances of these works are very good, with tempi well chosen to display the immensely athletic nature of fast moving sections. Phrasing and articulation is well thought through and the gentler, more reflective, quiet passages are taken at very apt paces in order to allow the development of tonal colour to be appreciated. This coupling of Liszt and Reubke inevitably brings to mind the similar coupling in the 1985 DGG recording by Simon Preston at Westminster Abbey and leads me to make some comparisons. Preston's recording luxuriates in the more extreme cathedral-style tonal colours of the Abbey instrument with the use of high pressure reeds and forward, almost neo-baroque, choruses caught in a relatively close recording. Robert's CD is less extreme in this regard and, while the 1906 Norman & Beard may not precisely mirror the 1850 Merseberg instrument, I am left feeling that it produces sonorities which are none-the-less closer to that period. The other issue is Preston's extreme technical brilliance has led to a recording in which some dazzling virtuosic passages are taken notably faster in comparison with Robert's. This can become a situation where the music is not necessarily best served by speed, since this can impede our ability to appreciate the complexity of harmonic development and subtleties of phrasing and rhythm. There are differences between these two recordings, but in my view, Robert's registrations and interpretation are no less valid nor less appropriate and can even work better for this repertoire. The CD is packaged with an attractive booklet with well-researched and informative notes written by Robert Costin. A brief history of the organ and specifications are included. In conclusion, I find this to be an excellent CD and I thoroughly commend it as a fine example of massive organ repertoire played very convincingly on one of the jewels in New Zealand's crown of superb heritage organs. Robert Costin, Wayne Laird of Atoll and other contributors are to be congratulated for this. Peter Stockwell Seen and Heard International Recital review, Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York, 6.4.2008 Bossi: Entrée Pontificale (1886-90) The enormous vaults of New York's Saint Thomas Church were a fine match for Marco Enrico Bossi's grandly ceremonial Entrée Pontificale, which began Robert Costin's finely conceived half-hour recital. Bossi (1861-1925), son of an Italian organist, wrote operas, orchestral music and oratorios as well as organ works, but most are largely unperformed today. (This is the first time I can recall hearing anything by him.) This broadly phrased, triumphant few minutes showed Costin in immediate command of the Saint Thomas instrument, adding some thrilling textures in the thunderous conclusion. Quite different was César Franck's Cantabile, a delicate, even winsome episode scarcely three minutes long. Costin used a reedy timbre to highlight the plaintive melody, which unfolds with quiet dignity. But the prize of the afternoon went to Herbert Howells' Partita, which Costin said is rarely performed. (I feel another rant coming on, about neglected works that should be played more often.) In five sections, it begins with a clamorous "Intrata" with some arresting chord progressions, ending with a low, ominous flourish. The quiet "Interlude" that follows has a chantlike opening, leading to a striking ending in the high register over a rock-bottom low pedal, both pianissimo. The frenzied "Scherzo" (well, "frenzy" of the Howells kind) eventually dissolves into a calm introspective "Epilogue," ending with a quiet, ruminative final page or so. The fourth movement is titled "Sarabande for the 12th day of any October," a nod to the birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams, whom Howells apparently revered enough to feel that he should be remembered. It is a gentle homage, questioning and sober, that often evokes the great composer's enigmatic style. The tense "Finale and Retrospect" has phrases that erupt like shafts of sunlight, dimming to whispers before the fortissimo ending. Costin's intensity in the final pages was absolutely breathtaking. Bruce Hodges The Partita, Howells's "last major work," was the most impressive piece here ... I found it compelling. Its Intrata is gritty and meaty. Its Interlude is quiet, mysterious, and even haunting, rising to a strong, even dissonant summit. Its third movement is fleet and gripping ... Robert Costin showcases the range and sonic pallet of the organ of the Town Hall in Dunedin, New Zealand. It sounds wonderful ... The recording quality is excellent. Recommended Fanfare Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008 Mention Herbert Howells and at once most organists and church musicians call to mind Howells' individual approach to harmonic colour and sensuousness. This new release gives us an opportunity to explore significant organ works that are part of music's main-stream - a collection for the connoisseur of well crafted 'absolute music' compositions for the organ that become all the more rewarding after several hearings. These works show Howells' development as a composer throughout his life and the significance of his contribution to the organ repertoire. It seems most appropriate to use a civic instrument for these 'absolute' works that 'get away from the church' as Howells puts it. These are virtuosic works placing tremendous demands on the player who must ensure that the big picture unfolds clearly and logically. Robert Costin succeeds admirably. The CD notes are very helpful, giving us insight into the man behind the music. The opening sentence sets the scene. "Herbert Howells was a complex man, blest with great musical talent but dogged by personal insecurities and vanities throughout his long life." Howells' journey as a composer is highlighted in relation to the works we hear and the listener is encouraged to note the evidence of his powerful structural logic and cumulative power and set aside any thoughts of this music as being formless and meandering. The CD opens with Howells 2nd Rhapsody which is dedicated to Dr. Alcock, the organist of Salisbury who appointed Howells as his assistant. (Because of ill health, Howells soon sidestepped a career as a Cathedral organist and built a distinguished teaching, examining and composing career instead). The 30 minute Second Sonata (1932) follows (dedicated to George Thalben-Ball) with an opening dramatic movement in sonata form, a contemplative slow movement and angular melodies and dissonant harmonies in the third. Toccata-like textures round off the work. A posthumous Intrata is followed by a Sonata which during composition evolved into a Partita and was completed in 1971. Howells had promised Edward Heath that if he ever became Prime Minister that he would compose a work for him! He kept his word and the premiere played by John Birch took place in 1972 with both composer and Prime Minister present. Recurring material binds the work together from opening energetic statements and subsequent development through to a retrospective section and a cascading finale finishing on a final major 7th chord. Accolades to Robert Costin for his impeccable playing, subtle judgement of phrasing, beautifully controlled structural ebb and flow and apt registration throughout the performances. This CD is a triumph. Roy Tankersley (August 2007 edition of Organ News, New Zealand Association of Organists) The organ music of Herbert Howells has been so well served on disc in the past few decades that it is no longer a rarity to encounter it in the record catalogues, but few CDs approach the excellence of performance of this issue from the New Zealand company Atoll. It is first-class in every respect, from the choice of repertoire to the depth of understanding given to this music by Robert Costin, who exhibits an intensity and admirable sense of forward momentum in his playing especially in the Rhapsody that should certainly not be taken for granted. His insight into this music is complete, which is exceptional in having been written over a 54-year period. The fine performance of the Rhapsody is followed by a thrilling account of the mighty Second Sonata, probing and compelling music which finds Costin fully understanding of its great lines in the first two movements the first-movement coda is superbly done and consistently of its character, especially in the rhythmic organization in the finale. These same qualities of performance inhabit the splendid Partita written for Edward Heath when he became Prime Minister in 1970, fulfilling a promise Howells made about 30 years earlier (that if Heath ever became Prime Minister he would write a work for him) when the musician-politician was organ scholar at Balliol College, Oxford. (Not to be outdone, Margaret Thatcher invited Lorin Maazel to dinner at Downing Street, and got the French Prime Minister to attend the Proms with her.) The Partita's fourth movement Sarabande for the 12th day of any October (Vaughan Williams's birthday, Mrs Thatcher's is the 13th!), is followed by Finale and Retrospect, in which a host of musical allusions are cleverly interwoven in a fascinating tapestry. The choice of repertoire here has been carefully selected. There is nothing forbidding about these pieces, the product of a sensitive, original and imaginative genius (not too strong a word) and as indicated earlier Costin plays admirably throughout. The recording is very good, at times outstandingly so...this is an excellent disc which would make a very good introduction to Howells's organ music. International Record Review, March 2007 Vista and Priory both recorded complete surveys of Howells's organ music, but listeners to this single-disc sample can feel well content. The second op.17 Rhapsody, the Second Sonata and Intrata and the austere late Partita are all abstract works, spanning 50 years, and unusual in the composer's output for being unencumbered with melancholy personal baggage or local association. Robert Costin has chosen his organ well, an English touring organ of plain-peaking reeds that eventually fetched up in the unclouded space of Dunedin Town Hall. This is Howells, but not as you know him, virile and dramatic. Choir and Organ Magazine, March/April 2007. Costin makes a fabulous job of the Organ Sonata No. 2, maintaining interest for the whole of its twenty-nine-plus minutes with masterly control of registration and impetus. The contrasting moods of the opening Vivo are perfectly judged, and Costin conveys the long-arch-like span of the slow movement. He also sustains wonderfully the excitement and, to an extent, tension of the concluding Allegro assai. By any standards this is a most arresting performance of one of Howells' finest compositions...[the organ] sounds ideally suited to Howells' music and possesses a complete range of cathedral-like tone colours - Gloucester comes to mind - that Costin fully exploits. Organ Magazine, November 2006. Both players have a good understanding of the works they are performing and the high standard of playing reflects this...The organ of Dunedin Town Hall sounds good in the space it fills, and the tempi are suited to the size of the building. Cathedral Music Magazine, November 2006 On track: A celebration of the organ's thunder and fury Auckland composer Dorothea Franchi had many tales to tell of the English composer Herbert Howells as she was his pupil in the 1940s. Just imagine the coming together of this most English of gentlemen and such a Kiwi pragmatist. Music by Howells (1892-1983) has struggled to gain a mainstream audience and there was a time when hard-core devotees treasured an early LP of his Hymnus Paradisi, a score that Dorothea admired greatly. A wider span of music is now available, including a handsome set of his songs with another New Zealand connection one of the singers is New Zealand soprano Catherine Pierard. New Zealand's Atoll label has just added to the storehouse. Robert Costin's recital of Howell's organ music, played on the Dunedin Town Hall organ, is an eminently satisfying venture. Resist if you can the defiant, brooding textures of the opening Rhapsody in E flat minor, captured by producer Wayne Laird with almost alarming immediacy. These eight minutes remind you that this splendid organ is a star too, already immortalised in Kemp English's two Stormin Norma discs. The other short piece, an Intrata, also from the 1940s, sets off in gentler mode, weaving delicate textures with Costin's well-judged registrations and keen articulation, until it, too, erupts in fury. But the really monumental pieces here are the Second Organ Sonata of 1934 and the Partita of 1971. The first movement of the sonata is a real thunderer, yet the second movement looks towards the pastoral simplicity of the English folksong. Costin has the measure of both to perfection. The Partita has political connections of a sort. When in Oxford, Howells promised fellow student Edward Heath that he would pen him an organ sonata should he ever become Prime Minister of England. When it came true in 1970, promises were kept and what was to be Howells last major work was written. Costin lays the five movements out skilfully, from what I hear as anger in the modernistic first to translucently toned tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams in Sarabande for the 12 day of any October. Don't wait to chase up this CD. William Dart, New Zealand Herald, August 2 2006 |