Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE definitive recording of the Saint-Saens 'Organ' symphony, 6 Oct 2008
This live recording, featuring the largest concert hall organ in the United States, and the resident organist of Notre Dame, Paris, was recommended in the BBC Radio 3 programme 'Building a library' earlier this year. It did sound quite good on the stereo radio.
Christoph Eschenbach's pace is more leisurely than some of the available recordings, and the organ entry in the final movement continues this pace. But WHAT an entry! The power behind this organ is almost unbelievable, and (sadly) eclipses the Klais organ in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, where I have heard this performance live. I can only imagine the reaction of the audience in Verizon Hall at the end of the concert; the applause has obviously been muted, but adds to the magnificence of the recording. I do have both the Simon Preston (BPO / James Levine) and the Peter Hurford (OSM / Charles Dutoit) recordings, but this much newer recording is in a completely different class. Eschenbach, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Olivier Latry are to be congratulated on what for me is now the finest CD in my collection of some 400, and the BBC WERE right to choose this recording.
As a final comment, the live recording does NOT detract from the performance, and indeed has not had the editing (sometimes poorly) of a few of the other available recordings! In one word, BRILLIANT!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good compromise, 19 Jun 2008
The booklet with this disc reveals that the Fred J Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall, used for this recording, was inaugurated in May 2006 and is the largest concert hall organ in the US. From the evidence available here, it is a magnificent instrument, capable of a wide range of volume and colour, and is demonstrated admirably by Olivier Latry.
Barber's Toccata Festiva opens the programme with fire and verve, and is given a committed performance.
The Poulenc organ concerto is more often heard, and I fancy more detail to be audible than in some other recordings. Again all musicians do it full justice.
The main event on this disc has to be the third symphony of Saint-Saens. I have seen some discussion of Eschenbach's tempi elsewhere, but I find them totally acceptable and sustained by the orchestra with conviction. Integration of organ with orchestra is fine, and the rousing finale is given with panache. The appreciative audience applauds enthusiastically.
And there lies my one criticism of this production - the compromise made in order to exclude audience noise. Overall the impression is of a close-miked recording, sensitively balanced but lacking in hall ambience. For example, the mighty organ chord opening the final movement of the symphony should echo around the hall, but doesn't. This one criticism apart, I would have no hesitation in giving this disc my approval.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perhaps the best ever recording of Saint-Saens symphony No 3, 14 Jul 2009
German born (1940) Christoph Eschenbach conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra at the May 2006 concerts to mark the first public display of the newly completed Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ, the largest in the USA, at the 2500 seat Verizon Hall in Philadelphia.
The works by Poulenc and Barber works are not their most popular but the Saint -Saens symphony is a familiar concert favourite and is the stand out piece on this SACD disc.
French organist Olivier Latry (born 1962) enjoys the honour of playing the debut performance of the huge 7000 pipe organ, and his measured and mature manner of playing belies his relative youthfulness, resulting in perhaps the finest recording of the Saint-Saens organ symphony available
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