SWEELINCK: Organ Works

Christie, James David

8.550904

Those wanting a larger, more fully representative collection of Sweelinck’s organ music can turn to Naxos, who do not usually let us down with their one-disc surveys. Certainly the Wellesley College organ sounds right, James David Christie is a persuasive exponent, and his pacing is convincing.
The two Toccatas are the most commanding pieces here the C major quite virtuosic. Sweelinck’s chorale variations repeat the cantus firmus clearly with embellishments of increasing complexity. The secular variations are simpler.
Those based on a Dutch song are derived from an English ballad, All in a garden green, and the jolly Malle Sijmen (‘Simple Simon’) is based on an old English-dance-tune, and is piquantly registered. Poolsche dans (‘Polish dance’) is much more elaborate. I is in the middle section of the Echo Fantasia that the cuckoo-like echoes finally appear and the piece concludes like a toccata. Excellent recording.• Penguin Guide, January 2009

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

10-05-1994

4891030509047