Catalogue | Organ

Eccentrics of organ composition - that could well be the title of this CD. The contemporary organist and composer Jean Guillou is explicitly designated as such in the world of organ music; his Toccata, Op. 9 fully deserves this reputation, with its enormous richness of sound and expressive rhythmic terseness.
Julius Reubke emanates something of the dazzling brilliance of his teacher, Franz Liszt; his virtuosity and expressive power are in no way inferior to those of his teacher. It is, to be sure, a very bold idea indeed to base a psalm composition for organ on a prayer of revenge and then to translate this emotional content into music in a highly dramatic manner.
Finally we have Johann Sebastian Bach, who also wrote thoroughly unconventional works for the organ. There are complicated fugues and extended pedal solos in his toccatas and sonatas; moreover, one finds harmonic progressions that must have struck his contemporaries dumb.

These fireworks of symphonic sound require great technical virtuosity on the part of the organist. Stefan Frank, who has studied with Jean Guillou in Paris on a stipend, masters them with complete sovereignty on the magnificent Sandtner organ of the Basilica St. Ulrich & Afra in Augsburg.

• Choir & Organ | Stephen Bicknell | January 11, 2001

  Anyone who records Reubke before the age of 30 deserves close attention and Stefan Frank (b.1974) does not disappoint. His blistering account of the...

• Crescendo | SV | January 12, 2001

  Unbeschwert, aber flüchtig, dicht, aber auch zäh: Die spielerische Brillanz des jungen Stefan Frank verliert sich manchmal in allzu extremen...

• Diapason | Michel Roubinet | January 11, 2001

  Deux atouts pour un récital rigoureux: le chef d'oeuvre des ateliers de la maison Sandtner de Dilligen (Souabe), magnifique instrument de synthèse...

• Fono Forum | Herbert Glossner | January 3, 2002

  Europäische Orgelreise
  Wenn eine historische oder eine besonders gelungene heutige Orgel vorzustellen ist, dann können neben manchen Entdeckungen auch immer wieder...

• Magazine de l'Orgue | Jean Ferrard | January 2, 2002

  Si l’on a généralement admis aujourd’hui que l’orgue à tout jouer n’existe pas, certains développent l’hypothèse que l’organiste à...

• Organ | Hannah Oelsnitzer | January 3, 2001

  Die große Sandtner-Orgel (70/IV/P) der Basilika St. Ulrich & Afra - der...

• Straubinger Tageblatt | Kristian Kuhnle | September 29, 2001

  Zwischen Ekstase und Exzentrik - Umfangreich überzeugendes CD-Solo-Debüt von Stefan Frank!
  Mit feurig züngelnden Akkorden beginnt die von Stefan Frank eingespielte CD mit Orgelmusik von Guillou, Bach und Reubke. Stefan Frank studierte an...

• www.organist.com | January 1, 2001

  Voici un CD qui comblera les amoureux de l’orgue. Ils y trouveront trois compositeurs qui représentent chacun le style de leur siècle: Le...