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I recently bought a CD by this name by Deutsche Grammophon which has a nice selection of organ classics - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Vidor's Toccata (Allegro) from Symphony No. 5 in F minor and so on.
It's nice to have these all collected together so I can start to put names against these famous pieces when I hear them.
[Aside : I'm a big fan of organ music, especially on a Really Serious Organ - living in Brooklyn as I do now, it's been a long time since I've had the chance to enjoy an Ian Tracey voluntary, but there is absolutely no substitute. If you are ever in Liverpool just before Christmas, take the opportunity to catch a Carol service at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, he always plays something spectacular at the end, and you can walk up and stand between the two towering organ banks. It doesn't get much better than that.]
But I don't get back to Liverpool very often, so...
Here's a way to possibly get some idea what it's like.
Disclaimer :- The following could upset your wife, it could scare your pets, it could kill your house plants, and it will certainly strain your HiFi!
The big discovery for me on this CD was Apparition de L'Eglise Eternelle by Olivier Messiaen. It follows immediately after the Vidor piece mentioned above. The piece has a sort of arch structure - building from a quiet start to an epic, tooth-rattling climax and then fading away into the aether.
If you have a decent hifi, and a copy of this CD (and you should) try listening to these two tracks as follows :
If performed correctly, you should look a bit like Peter Murphy in those famous Maxell Ads - ok, maybe not the extremely gaunt cheeks.
Equipment used in this experiment :-
