 |
 Paul Jacobs Plays Bach. Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542; O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig, BWV 656; Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543; Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (BWV 639); Trio Sonata No. 5 in C Major, BWV 529; Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582. JAV Recordings 145. (This recording is only available online or by mail order. Visit www.pipeorgancds.com/pajaplbaormu.html.)
Before Paul Jacobs was named chair of Juilliard's organ department last year at the advanced age of 27, he went by another, if less official title: "marathon organist." He first earned that designation in 2000, when he twice performed Bach's complete organ works in 14 consecutive evenings, in New York and Philadelphia. Later that year, he performed the whole cycle again in an 18-hour nonstop marathon in Pittsburgh. And last year, he gave a nine-hour marathon of Messiaen's complete organ works at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin near Times Square, an endeavor he has performed in six other cities across the country.
But having taken organ playing into the realm of extreme sport, the intrepid Jacobs has also found rewards in a more deliberate approach to the repertoire. Bach provides a suitable cornerstone, having composed more than 200 works for organ, covering a dazzling expressive range. Unlike those of most other Baroque composers, his were genuine organ pieces, with specific pedal parts—others usually wrote for keyboard instruments in general and then let the performers adjust to suit the circumstances. Bach's best-known organ works are the imposing ones—the Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor ("The Great"), the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, the Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, which can be heard on the JAV CD Paul Jacobs Plays Bach. In these commanding works, Jacobs's playing is imaginative, precise, and often thrilling. Particularly riveting is his rendition of the "Great" Fugue, emphasizing the contrasts between disparate voices and making much of the instrument's orchestral qualities. At the other extreme are Bach's meditative chorale preludes, two of which appear here. Finally, there's the Trio Sonata in C Major, which features some of the most demanding music in the entire organ literature—a web of multiple voices that Jacobs performs with utmost dexterity and enunciation. The disk is subtitled "An Unedited Release," indicating that these are essentially "live" performances (though not played before an audience); the final product has not been stitched together from various sessions in the editing room. The three von Beckerath organs featured on the CD—at St. Michael's Church in Manhattan, St. Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh, and Dwight Chapel at Yale University (Jacobs's alma mater) in New Haven—offer an excellent sense of color, from brilliant upper reeds to the great, resounding lower registers. Adams: Road Movies. Andrew Russo, piano; James Ehnes, violin and piano. Phrygian Gates; Hallelujah Junction; China Gates; Road Movies. Black Box BBM1098Another keyboard wiz in his late 20s who is carving out a distinctive niche is Andrew Russo, an American pianist who settled in Europe after earning a master's degree from Juilliard in 1998. In Europe, he discovered European composers like Jacob ter Veldhuis and Philippe Manoury but also developed a fondness for American experimentalists including Ives, Cowell, and Crumb. His adventurous tastes were revealed when, as one of 30 finalists in the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, he dared to play pieces like Copland's Piano Variations, piano music of Henri Dutilleux, and Crumb's A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979—hardly standard competition fare.
As this new collection of chamber works by John Adams suggests, Russo is not easily pigeonholed. Far from a craggy experimentalist, Adams is America's most frequently performed living composer. Joining Russo is fellow Juilliard graduate James Ehnes (B.M., 1997), who trades his usual violin for keyboard in a performance of the 1986 two-piano piece Hallelujah Junction. Named for a truck stop on the California-Nevada border, it includes quotations of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" along with shades of stride piano. Russo and Ehnes team up again in Road Movies, a 1995 piece for violin and piano also based on road imagery. From the relaxed groove of the first movement to the vast open spaces of the second movement to the rollicking, pothole-filled toccata of the finale, the duo clearly has fun with this music. The earliest works here are China Gates and Phrygian Gates, both composed in 1977 when Adams was still essentially a minimalist. Playing with intensity, sweep, and high-speed finger work, Russo proves why Phrygian Gates remains one of the composer's most rewarding pieces.Brian Wise is a producer at WNYC radio and writes about music for The New York Times, Time Out New York, Opera News, and other publications.
|
