Organ

This generously filled two-disc Harmonia Mundi release includes not only Handel's complete set of six organ concertos published after his death as his Opus 7, but also the organ concerto known as "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale," plus three works for solo harpsichord: a fugue in G minor and two chaconnes. The recording has transparent yet immediate super audio digital sound that puts the music in the room with the listener. These performances are as charming and engaging as the finest ever recorded. Organist and harpsichordist Richard Egarr is impressive in both roles. As the organ soloist, Egarr is strong and sensitive in the concertos, with a real talent for improvisation in the cadenzas.

This acclaimed recording series of the complete organ works of Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707) offers a unique musical journey in the footsteps of the Danish-German Baroque master. Organist Bine Bryndorf explores Buxtehudes inventive stylus phantasticus through the beautiful sound of five historic organs around the Baltic area, beginning in the composers native town of Elsinore, and ending in Lübeck, where his successor Johann Sebastian Bach famously went to experience the art of the ageing organ legend.

The origins of Philip Glass' Voices, for didgeridoo and organ was specific: a commission from the city of Melbourne, Australia, in 2001. Yet the instrumental combination works so well that it seems almost foreordained, and Glass went on to write further music for the soloist here, Mark Atkins. In this performance, the didgeridoo and organ tracks were recorded separately, in Australia and upstate New York, respectively, and in Glass' metronomic world this works well enough. Yet one hopes that this release on Glass' Orange Mountain Music label is enough to spur future live performances with both players in the same room. The addition of the didgeridoo to the relatively homogeneous texture of Glass' organ writing is dramatic, but it doesn't disturb the basic shifting fields of the composer's music. It just deepens their color and variety in an immensely attractive way.