Organ & Rachmaninoff...

[TTB3]

Hi guys,

I know Rach-"the man"-inoff did not write any pieces for the organ, but I was just wondering are there any organ pieces/composers out there with a "Rachmaninoffy Flavour"? :-) As would love to give them a listen. :-)

Best wishes & thanks x

[Corno Dolce]

Aloha TTB3,

Well, the most easily playable Rachmaninoff works on organ are the C#-minor prelude and the G-minor prelude. I play a number of the Rachmaninoff preludes and etudes on the organ. If you want to know which others, please PM me.

Cheerio,

CD

[rovikered]

Hi guys,

I know Rach-"the man"-inoff did not write any pieces for the organ, but I was just wondering are there any organ pieces/composers out there with a "Rachmaninoffy Flavour"? :-) As would love to give them a listen. :-)

Best wishes & thanks x

There are organ arrangements of 'Vocalise' (I play one by Patricia Bird) and I have myself arranged one of the early piano pieces (Canon in eminor) for organ. These two sound fine on the organ. I have heard a recording of Olivier Latry playing the Prelude in csharp minor on the organ, but I think this sounds better on the piano.

[Corno Dolce]

YES!!! The Vocalise is a wonderfully emoting piece on the organ. I'll use a plangent Cor Anglais 8 + Flute Douce 4 and tremulant for the melody in the right hand and Viole de Gambe 8 + Viole Celeste 8 + Bourdon 8 in accompaniment.

It gets the listeners grabbing for their *hankies and tissue papers.* - The piece gives and gives and gives again.

[Soubasse]

I think the Rach Vocalise is one of the finest things ever written for the voice as it shows off the voice, the whole voice and nothing but the voice, as an instrument without the need for words to convey a good tune. I suspect, although I don't know for certain, that it was a template for Jehan Alain's own (beautiful) vocalise written for his sister.

I'd like to hear the Rach version for voice and organ. I think it would be a real treat to hear both the accompaniment as well as the solo line sustaining those luscious chords. Just my $0.02

[Hecklephone]

Don't forget, Vierne arranged the c# for organ and a few other things purists would frown on (poor fools). Rach's Melody in E is found in an old AMSCO-type collection, and of course it would be easy to adapt from the piano original. Maybe other smaller pieces too. I find there's very little music of any kind or era that doesn't adapt well on the organ.

TTB3 asked whether there were Rachmaninovian composers for organ. This whole discussion is useful but, that's a good question -- a tough one since Rach's style was so unique. For what it's worth I revere his older contemporary Glazunov/Glazunoff/Glasunow, who wrote a few original organ works. Some or all are on the Tsar of Instruments CD including the wondrous Prelude and Fugue in D. I suspect everyone here would enjoy working up the Prelude -- it's equally redolent of Brahms and Rach, but very Russian.

Come to think of it Glazunov wrote a stunning, overwhelming prelude in Db for piano that ought to adapt well.... in the hands of a true Romantic! I think that's the key it's in -- ABA form, starts chordal.

There's a picture of Rach in his Wikipedia article tragicomically captioned "The failure of Symphony No. 1 (1896) long bothered Rachmaninoff".

[dll927]

What about poor Anton Bruckner? He was a church oganist, but never seems to have left anything substantial for the organ.

And for some type of disappointments over symphonies, Bruckner might have been the champion. His first one wasn't done until he was around 40, and he then proceeded to revise several of the earlier ones. As if that weren't enough, a couple of later "editors" saw fit to revise them again. The result is, according to CD brochure accounts at least, that there are performances of his symphonies with completely different movements.

Revision is hardly un-heard of, but the usual assumption is that the composer's final 'version' is what becomes the standard performance. I've often wondered why Bruckner doesn't seem to follow that pattern.

[Corno Dolce]

Aloha dll927,

This is somewhat off-topic from the thread but it deserves to be addressed: I am an ardent fan of Bruckner's music and have read much pertaining to the endless *revising* of his symphonies, whether by the composer or someone else. It is my understanding that Bruckner himself always kept the original scores, but submitted copies of them to those who insisted *change* was due.

Yes, Bruckner had a long gestation process as to becoming a composer - He felt his own inadequacy and sought to put himself through the ringer by *demanding* his teachers would not spare the critique. He wanted to be the perfect composer with all the necessary tools and skills perfectly learned.

So, in the end we find a Bruckner who still took great pains to listen, acknowlege, and understand and even willingly submit himself to the sometimes very caustic wishes and demands of many others who were really inferior to him. I find it a testament to his strength as a composer to believe in his final product while still letting other people monkey around with the scores. Before his repose he made sure that the originals were safely taken care of.

Here are recordings of organ transcriptions of his fourth and eigth symphonies that can be had through the OHS catalog:

http://www.ohscatalog.org/bruccav.html

Cheers,

CD

[Hecklephone]

I mentioned Rach's Melody in E being in a collection, and what ho, it was sitting right here on my desk -- G. Schirmer's Thirty-Three Favorite Organ Solos, edited by the much underrated Roland Diggle. It's an excellent old volume and one of those most often available via Ebay. I see several available there now, including one that's just $8 including shipping, maybe less if they accept your lower Best Offer. Search favorite organ solos in Ebay.

[rovikered]

[QUOTE=dll927;83961]What about poor Anton Bruckner? He was a church oganist, but never seems to have left anything substantial for the organ.

Perhaps not 'poor Anton Bruckner' as(from what I seem to remember reading) he preferred to improvise on the organ rather than compose for it. Instead it's 'we poor organists' since we do not seem to have any of his music to play.
On second thoughts, however, we should probably try some arrangements.

[Devis Manth]

Rachmaninoff...this is the first time I hear about it. I wish I learned my music well when I was in school, but what ever I do even forced myself to learned it but I never did learn. I always like music and instruments but they are not for me.

[Caddis]

Hi to the forum
I've got a very nice recording of the c# played on the C.C. organ at St. Ouen Rouen by Christine Kamp(Complete organ works Louis Vierne Vol. 3-Festivo).It's one of my favourate interpretations of the c#,I've got another interpretation by Andreas Meisner but the Klais organ is no match for the beautiful sounding C.C. organ at St. Ouen(no pun intended).

[Canning]

The last movement of Percy Whitlock's Organ Sonata is in pure Rachmaninoff style, as Whitlock himself admitted. Fabulous piece.
Best,
Andrew