Organ Orgy - A Wagner Sound Spectacu Lar Remastered

Anthony Newman, known as one of the pioneers of Baroque keyboard music played in the authentic style, but with a quickened tempo, beats the band with this CD of organ music more than 200 years after Bach. There are five lengthy organ transcriptions of familiar passages from Wagner's "Die Walkure," "Parsifal," "Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg," and "Das Rheingold," plus Liszt's "Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H," which is an ideal pairing with its Wagnerian style.The transcriptions are exciting, showing off the 1954 Aeolian-Skinner organ of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City.organ in its various registers and combinations of pipes. Particularly dramatic is the use of the Pontifical Trumpet stop.The organ, having such a range of sound and timbres, is notoriously difficult to record well. Although this CD is made from an original analog recording from 1969/1974, the digital quality of the transfer is one of the best that I have heard of organ works. The sound is extraordinarily clear and brilliant throughout, the spatial separation is remarkable, and each of the musical lines is heard distinctly.

Ahhhh.... WOW! Just WOW!This review is for the remastered CD.While it is well known that Anthony Newman can be very controversial with tempo and rhythm, THIS album will lift eyebrows of just about anyone with ears.I found the recording to be excellently remastered, indistinguishable from later digital recordings of his performances (a little bit of tape is can be audible at rare times). As I write this, my sub-woofer is still cooling down. It got one heck of a workout. The recording engineers did an excellent job!Perhaps what makes this disc most attractive (other than Mr. Newman's refreshing performance) is the massive instrument in it's massive setting. The use of the high pressure 8' State Trumpet rank is VERY effective (watch your tweeters), and certainly a highlight of this collection.This recording belongs in any serious audiophile's shelf. If THIS disc does not show off your system, nothing will...

Well, I suppose this recording could be used for those purposes - it is a sonic spectacular which will likely be used to test the capabilities of many audio components in years to come. Like many others, I have waited years for this to be issued in CD format. Back in the mid-1970s, I had a promo LP of this, but it suffered from the noise and muddiness that tainted some (not all) Columbia vinyl recordings. No longer - these spectacular performances are brilliant and clear in this format. Much fun here - "Ride of the Valkyries" is a triumph. Newman definitely does justice to this piece - his rendition is, well, brutal. The more nuanced Lohengrin Prelude is also rewarding. Throughout this recording, the brass voices get what must be an unprecedented workout - check out the "trumpet" fanfares on "Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla" - absolutely remarkable. All in all, this recording is even better than I recalled. The Liszt piece is an added bonus.

I was an organ student in Chicago in 1975, and bought this album when it was first released. (My teacher didn't approve. LOL) To be honest, Anthony Newman is not one of my favorite organists, I don't even like Wagner's music, and I generally don't care for organ transcriptions of orchestral music. So imagine my surprise when this instantly became one of my favorite albums. I played it over and over frequently for many years. I was thrilled to see it finally remastered onto CD, and ecstatic to add it back into my collection. It is inspiring!!! The music, combined with the awesome organ (150 ranks) in an immense space (600 feet long) and Anthony Newman's superb performance make this one of the best organ CD's this organist has ever known. It brings back a flood of memories listening to it again. Heavenly!

I've been looking for this recording for years. I had the original vinyl till I wore it out. The organ at St. John the Divine in New York city is considered by many to truly be a masterpiece of organ building. The 24 bit cd is even better than any needle on wax could convey. If you like an organ recorded in the worlds largest "gothic" cathedral. And if you like Wagner, don't walk, run and get this disc. There are other recordings out there at St. Johns--Proogano among them, but this was the recording that told me just how good my stereo was. Don't get evicted.

I was so happy to find this awesome recording available on CD at last. The transcriptions of Wagner's music for the incredible organ at New York City's Cathedral of Saint John the Devine are amazing. And the sound - it is a serious test of my speaker system. There are only two quibbles - in one of the Wagner pieces there is a problem with the pitch wavering in one place and the Liszt was recorded at a different time using microphones that were placed MUCH too close to the organ case. But I didn't buy this recording for the Liszt but for the Wagner which Anthony Newman handles with incredible ease and uses every bell and whistle this incredible instrument has to offer.

Love Newman or not, his Baroque period interpretations are controversial but grounded in his scholarly research. I ignore opinions from people who cannot back their opinions up with documented scholarly research, especially about the Baroque period. These transcriptions are fun.

Received this CD and they must have used the original SQ tapes, at least that is what it sounds like in my surround sound system. Your can really pick apart the voicing used as compared to my LP version.

OMG this should come with a health warning for long term listening! I knew this as an LP way back but it was far from easy to play on many record players. The sound is so upfront as to make you part of the very pipe work of the organ! The vast acoustic of St John the Divine only shows itself when chords die away, and in consequence it’s often pretty unremittingly in your face and upfront, but no one can say it isn’t thrilling,mindblowing and even mind numbing in its use of the big solo stops of this lavishly specified organ. More space round the sound would have enhanced my pleasure but if you want cobwebs cleared and neighbours crossed, then here is your ammunition and first point of reference. Buy whilst you can and just hope your speakers can handle such relentless energy and power. It’s a tsunami of organ effluence!!

最初の購入はアナログ国内盤でSQ4チャンネルのもの。壮大なパイプオルガンの響きやダイナミックレンジも広く、この頃発売されたDuadカセットテープにダビングして聞いていたのも懐かしい。お薦めです。

Newman does a huge job - and brings back the value of organ transcriptions in this Wagner CD. Not Bach to be sure - but very exciting stuff....

D'une notoriété plutôt réservée chez nous à un cercle d'initiés, Anthony Newman est considéré pour ainsi dire comme une star outre-Atlantique (petit jeu : tapez donc "Anthony Newman" sur Amazon.fr et comparez avec ce que vous obtenez sur Amazon.com... édifiant !). De quoi au moins piquer la curiosité...Il s'agit ici (si je ne m'abuse) de la première édition en CD d'un album qui en son temps fit grand bruit (dans tous les sens du terme, je le confirme). En 1975, l'année où la guerre meurt au Vietnam, et où Pablo Escobar fait rentrer la cocaïne dans le mode de vie américain (j'ignore s'il y a un lien), Anthony Newman se lance en effet dans des pages de Richard Wagner transcrites pour orgue (par Edwin Lemare, essentiellement) et exécutées sur les massives grandes orgues de la Cathédrale Saint-Jean le Divin de New York.Exécutées, cela aussi je le confirme (n'en déplaise aux Newman's U.S. friends). Car si certains passages se prêtent mieux aux sonorités amples ou fourmillantes du roi des instruments, ces succédanés (ou succès damnés ? Enfin, bref...) échouent le plus souvent piteusement à rendre l'écheveau sonore et le tressage mélodique complexe pour lequel Wagner utilisa toutes les possibilités de l'orchestre, sans parler bien entendu d'une quelconque restitution dramatique ou encore moins scénique. Certaines sonorités paraissent terriblement appauvries, étriquées par moment d'une façon presque risible (je rêve, ou on se remémore le petit synthétiseur qui prend la poussière dans un carton du garage ?). A tel point que, au-delà de la transcription, on a l'impression parfois d'avoir affaire à une parodie (une sorte de Wagner version Mel Brooks).Le Prélude et Fugue sur B.A.C.H. de Franz Liszt, ajouté en complément (pour un disque qui au total atteint 52 minutes) et capté 3 ans plus tôt, est déjà plus intéressant, mais n'est pas suffisant pour pouvoir recommander cet album, destiné avant tout aux ufologues (surtout américains, semble-t-il) . Certains passages (dans les Adieux de Wotan, par exemple) laissent d'ailleurs germer l'idée d'une rencontre entre Newman et Spielberg avec un troisième type...Enfin, aux wagnériens qui voudraient écouter ceci d'une traite, on peut aimablement rappeler que l'usage de neuroleptiques est totalement déconseillé sans avis médical.

We finally have this thrilling recording available again, forty years after its initial release. Fans of the organ, and Anthony Newman should be ecstatic!