Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
I had been searching for E. Power Bigg’s recording of Joseph Rheinberger’s Two Concerti for Organ ever since my LP copy finally became unplayable. Sony has, of course, seen fit not to release it on CD; for that matter, the vast majority of E. Power Biggs’ recordings, both mono and stereo, have not seen the light of day since CBS/Columbia Masterworks became Sony Classical. Quite a shame; this particular recording beats any recorded version since, interpretively and sonically. The LP copy I found during my Denver trip was near-mint, so restoration was completed very quickly. I added another LP to fill out the CD – this one from a Columbia 2-LP collection entitled “Heroic Music for Organ, Brass and Percussion”, derived from recordings made in early 1959 and 1962, featuring The New England Brass Ensemble conducted by Richard Burgin, with Biggs on organ. The first half of the 2-LP set, music of Frescobaldi and Gabrieli, had been reissued on “The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli” CD (which also had the Philadelphia/Cleveland/Chicago Brass ensembles recorded in 1968) in 1996 on the Sony/Masterworks Heritage inprint, and again as a budget CD in 2005. The second half of the set compiled arrangements of music by Clarke, Handel, Purcell, and Telemann. That LP yielded a good selection of exciting, well-played companions to the Rheinberger concerti. I’ll be posting the CD on Klassic Haus later this week.