The ten worst sounding organ recordings of all time

Finally I came around to publish my personal and subjective list of the ten worst organ recordings of all time, you´re gonna find the first article listing the ten best recordings here. Just like the list with the ten worst sounding classical recordings this one here concentrates on ugly sounding recordings that might get you confused like me above. Many of the organs mentioned here are so horribly recorded, it´s a shame. The virtual stage might be too compact, the organ might not sound the way it does in real life (which is admittedly hard to achieve in any case) or the frequency balance is off. But here it goes...

The 24 Pièces de Fantaisie by Louis Vierne are beautiful, imaginative, creative, they are a work of art. A shame that they have been recorded so horrible here. The sound of this recording from MDG puts the artistry of both the composer and the interpreter to shame, the organ sounds nothing like on well done recordings: thin and brittle (!) with the virtual stage beeing too compact, the usually voluptous sound of this mighty organ isn´t apparent here. These two CDs are sounding "German" in the most horrible way with the result that this organ seems to be tiny and limp. And it shouldn´t sound that way because it´s housed inside an impressively sized cathedral. So disappointing.

Again a wonderful interpretation by Ben van Oosten recorded in surprisingly low sound quality. Here we have three organs used for interpretating the six famous organ symphonies by Louis Vierne and while it´s nice to listen to these very characteristic organs all three of them do not sound the way I´m used too. The stage is almost monaural, the recordings are noisy and pipes seem to be re-arranged. Especially disappointing is the recording of the organ in St. Sernin de Toulouse: if you know how it usually sounds you might recognize it with a lot of wishful thinking; again it seems too tiny, too thin and too far away, the thundering and warm bass isn´t there. The recorded sound of the organ in Rouen is a bit better than the one above but instead of being too thin we are treated to a tiring loudness-y sound characteristic here, the usually balanced and reverb laden characterstic cannot be experienced with this recording. Another thing: all recordings are surprisingly noisy which normally isn´t very disturbing to me - it´s just that I´ve never heard one recording of the organ in Rouen that was THAT noisy. Very disappointing - again. *sigh*

A very early recording by Telarc before they rose to fame and also before they had started recording digitally. This is a Direct-to-Disc recording, done in 1977 with engineering by Jack Renner and playing by Michael Murray. The sound quality isn´t so bad at all but I assume that the microphone placement was done wrong. The organ itself sounds restricted to the center channel mostly, few pipes extend to the left and right side of the stereo field. Then there´s a huge amount of reverb here, reverb that completely drowns every attempt of the organ to create a believable stage. Surprising when one considers that the room the organ stands in isn´t that huge. Well, later recordings by that particular team would be better anyway.

This is one of these recordings audiophiles love so much. But why? It sounds horrible: piercing treble, dynamics seems forced the same way the virtual stage sounds strange. It´s a recording that serves as a great example of how music was recorded in the best possible way back in the '50s: it may have sounded great then but today it sounds like shit. The playing... oh, well. Virgil Fox always was a poor-man's organist because he judged effect, bombast and glittery stage antiques to be more important than emotions transported via sensitive playing, effectively distorting the works he interpretated. Not recommended.

This recording would sound fabulous - if it wouldn´t sound that warm! Staging is impeccable, the cathedral is preserved well. But the organ sounds fat, the usually shrieking quality of its pipes is not present here. If one would know the organ in Notre-Dame de Paris only from this recording he/she would get a distorted view of its qualities only. This Deutsche Grammophon release sounds slightly better on the SACD layer but still not good enough. The company might know this because this recording isn´t available anymore.

This is a recording released by the small record label Prospect - sadly it also sounds that way: small and unimpressive with monaural, constricted stage impression that´s messed up because Pipes seem to change their position during a piece. I cannot say anything about the intepretation since these are the only recordings I know of the works by Theodore Dubois.

Formerly two seperately released CDs, this SACD sounds gorgeous with the selections from the second CD (except for an ennerving sine on high frequencies). However, the contents of the first CD are what´s bothering me. Yes, the famous Telarc sound is present here with delicate bloom, uncompressed dynamics and lovely euphonic colour... but the staging is off. The organ seems to be recorded with one microphone only with the effect that the orchestra surrounds the listener while the organ plays in the center only. Because the Organ Symphony by Saint-Saens was recorded in a church the reverb also sounds strange and hissy. Playing of all involved however is impeccable.

Ugh, again the organ at Methuen Memorial Music Hall. For the second time it sounds strange; this time the huge amount of reverb has shifted to the other extreme of being too dry. The placement of pipes inside the virtual stage is strange too because the organ seems to have been recorded from the side! The balance is off too this time: instead of sounding bass heavy it now sounds thin and brittle. Actually, the last characteristic might have been intentional for we are witnessing recordings by Johan Sebastian Bach - and they are usually German to the core. In any case, Telarc wasn´t very lucky with this organ...

One word: boring. I didn´t even know before I purchased this recording that an organ could sound that sleep inducing. I´m falling for a logical fallacy now by declaring that I never ever will be purchasing another recording from Naxos again judging by the horrible sound of this one.

Yes, I know, the cover is ugly! Sorry for that but I cannot do something about it. The sound quality is surprisingly good on this recording - when it represents the Cavaille-Coll organ in St. Sernin. This mighty organ sounds the way it usually sounds: impressive and with a very healthy amount of bass. Staging is a bit too compact but otherwise impeccable, dynamics are well preserved. Sadly, the organ changes from piece to piece. Loud and dynamic pieces of a certain work are represented by the organ in St. Sernin while smaller and supposedly lovely parts are represented by the organ in Lyon. Combining two organs for one work creates the effect of a recording with two faces - one minute you have fantastic sound, the next a noisy, small staged mess. I assume that organist Louis Robilliard did this to support the interpretational quality of these work, on me however it has the opposite effect of being unable to grasp what the composer was trying to convey. Released by dutch label festivo.

Phew, now that this is done I´m perfect again!

The ten best sounding organ recordings of all time!

Hello my süße, kleine Schweinehunde! Today I´m gonna talk about the best ever organ recordings - again from my very own point of view. This part of the classical recording industry sadly seems underrepresented, that´s one of the reasons why I´m gonna devote two seperate articles to it. It´s also one of my favourite classical genres and one can make me very happy with music such as this. I´m in no way a religious person, I just enjoy the sound of an organ which just happens to stand in churches mostly. An organ is also the most difficult musical instrument to record: not without reason this instrument is called "King of the instruments" (in Germany we call it "Queen"). The problem isn´t so much the organ itself but the room it stands in. You see, an organ and the room it occupies are one wholesome unit - an organ is built and engineered for this particular room, church or concert hall only. Which makes organ transplantation a rather difficult task: an organ that sounds perfect in a cathedral will probably sound truly awful inside a concert hall. Anyway, this "organ hobby" of mine started when a friend played one particular CD to me in 2003 and my quest for beautiful organ music has been continuing ever since. Organ music also was responsible for rediscovering my love for TELARC releases those years ago (the recording responsible is part of this list). Untypical for a German music lover I much prefer the romantic organs from France with their voluptious, orchestra-like sound instead of cold and mechanical recordings of Bach on fitting instruments (organs from the baroque period). The most famous romantic organs were built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, a french organ builder. Their sound is highly unique and immensely beautiful. Thankfully, several of these have been preserved in excellent condition without being changed too much by the historical renaissance in the mid-20th century. But to every rule or every taste there are exceptions, I will state them if necessary. But on with the show, shall we?

Only fitting that my first place goes to the recording of the 122 years old Cavaillé-Coll Organ at St. Ouen in Rouen with music by Louis Vierne. This recording from 1993 boasts the most stupendous stage impression you´ll ever hear on a 2-channel-recording. Dynamics are pristine and bass is plentiful - both are characteristics not surprising when one considers that it was built for a huge cathedral and that this organ shows a sonic characteristic typical for romantic organs. Interpretation by Michael Murray is flawless, albeit a bit slow and a bit too controlled: as always he seems to celebrate the notes he is playing. He always was one of the most transparent players in the world and it is quite apparent here (Ben van Oosten interprets these symphonies with more passion). This can be a bit distracting because sometimes he seems to loose himself in all the notes - but I love it anyway, it sounds just perfect and the interpretation still is impressive enough.

The same organ as above, this time on a new SACD with playing by Daniel Roth, himself titular organist at St. Sulpice in Paris (you know, the cathedral from "The DaVinci Code"). Just like the disc above the sonics present the organ in its most glorious light with warmth and colour - and stage. The latter is only a tad less impressive then on the recording above. Of interest are also the short improvisations Monsieur Roth does at the end of this disc: they serve to explain the different pipes and their resulting colour and sound. Highly recommended, I´d play the 2-channel SACD layer because it improves the stage further.

These three discs are highly expensive gems - but they are worth every penny. Never before has César Franck's work been recorded in its entirety, these three discs are the first to do so. The Goll-organ is brandnew and an extremely versatile instrument: it can be adjusted to play romantic material as well as baroque material - both with their particular requirements. What can I say, the sound of these discs is simply marvellous. Although it seems to exaggerate the "romantic sound" a bit, the warm sonic colour and timbre of the organ are wonderful and perfectly represented by those SACDs. Bass is plentiful and although the recording seems to loose resolution it does not, thanks to the astonishing engineering (the SACD layers are even better). These recordings have received many prizes and plenty of praise from critics - deservedly so. The interpretations by Hans-Eberhard Roß are lovely too although I cannot agree on everything he does (but that may have something to do with me being used to another style; see below). In any case this was a mammoth undertaking and it should be rewarding to anyone. Simply phenomenal recordings.

This is the organ I´ve described in my introduction: it´s the recording responsible for discovering organ music and also for rediscovering TELARC. At the time of the recording the organ was 100 years old and since it hadn´t been renovated for over 70 years everything us humans connect with old age has been preserved on this masterful recording by Jack Renner: this organ breathes, works, groans, creaks and uses pipes it´s not supposed to - it sounds like a beautiful, charming and powerful old lady reaching out for attention. The recording is surprisingly noisy and you can also hear the barker levers clicking and moving - but all of these seemingly important shortcomings doesn´t matter, it´s just the way the organ sounded at the time of the recording. I also find it very peculiar that this recording sounds so, well, "analogue" despite being recorded digitally. But why is this recording so perfect? Because it also boasts a stupendous amount of timbre, sonic colour, crispness - and a terrific bass! This dynamic and powerful bass is a thing on its own, it even has punch (which is almost impossible for an organ), it´s a Leviathan of power and might (responsible: the 32'' bombarde). The en chamade mounted spanish trumpets are lovely too even though they seem to be underrepresented slightly on this recording - although they´re still screaming at you. All other pipes seem to sound a tiny bit too crisp, the recorded stage appears to be too wide, every other recording of this beautiful and most beloved organ displays a smaller stage. Mr. Renner obviously made this organ a tad more impressive then it really is. But I don´t mind when the result is that perfect. Michael Murray's playing is equally perfect: again he seems to celebrate the notes though this time with so much loving care and plenty of emotions that every piece has its own inner suspense. To this day I haven´t heard any interpretation of César Franck that comes close to this one. Mr. Murray doesn´t do the errors all other organists seem to do with the Grande Piéce Symphonique, he does not get faster to fake musical suspense, he does not get slower either. Thank God he is no Marie-Claire Alain! In short: this recording makes it easy to get started with organ music and I´ll love it until the day I die.

This is the one baroque modelled organ I´ve talked about in my introduction. It´s a relatively new instrument and it showcases the thin and piercing sound baroque organs are famous for - perfect for the music of Johann-Sebastian Bach. BTW, this is the only recording of Bachs' organ music I can listen too. One reason is that the playing by Michael Murray is beautiful (the "celebrating" of notes again), the other reason can be found in its sound. This recording is so crystal clear withtout being brittle or tinny that it´s breathtaking: there is no discernable noise on this recording, just the pure pipe sound and the sound of the church the organ stands in. If one recording would deserve the adjective "pristine" then it would be this. There´s also plenty of deep bass and a tasty sonic bloom. Recorded by Robert Woods (founder of TELARC) in 1985 in Germany. Highly recommended if you want to hear the sound everyone talked about when describing the positive aspects of the CD format when it was introduced in 1982. It really showcases everything the format is capable of in the best possible way.

This organ... oh, wait, these organs (there are two) are impossible to capture. The organs in the gigantic Cologne cathedral were built in the '50s (the transept organ) and in the '90s (this second organ is hanging at one side of the nave 30 meters above the floor) by organ builder Klais and they have the close to impossible task of filling the largest gothic structure in the world with sound. The reverb tail alone takes roughly 13 (!) seconds to disappear completely and the sound inevitably ends up being confused and immensely airy. To record this is a daunting undertaking and while this recording fails a little of preserving the awe inspiring size of the cathedral it shows very well how these organs sound. To make it short, they are aggressive monsters! They burn a sonic firework that is hard to believe and if I wouldn´t have been there on several occasions myself I´d think that this recording would exaggerate. I can tell you, dear reader, these organs have plenty of colour, their range is vast, their dynamics are virtually unmatched. They´re able to reach ear-shattering volumes at one minute only to be so very gentle the next. The recording preserves all this as close as possible but sounds a bit too distant and too flat - that´s all. Everything else is there: the aggressiveness, the earthquake like bass, the almost piercing high frequencies and the timbre. The playing of titular organist Winfried Bönig could be better though, he likes to present "his" organ in the most spectacular light and while he succeeds at that he always plays too fast, the enormous room surrounding the organs simply cannot follow. Still, this is a lovely and impossible recording.

Another recording of an aggressive beast this SACD shows that a highly modified Cavaillé-Coll organ can still sound wonderfully unique. It occupies the probably most famous cathedral in the world: Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. This organ sounds metallic (with all the rust on the pipes) in the most positive sense, when it gets loud you almost fear that the pipes will explode because they attempt to blow away your ear. Still, the organ sounds warm like a typical romantic organ. This warmth, combined with plenty of possible aggressiveness results in a colourful and rightfully famous, wonderful sounding instrument. The recording captures this perfectly - even though sounding like being too closely miked, the reverb or the imaginary room of the cathedral seems to be missing a bit. One example are the spanish trumpets: on several occasions they are standing several meters in front of the organ which sounds a bit strange. But everything else... oh Boy! Wonderful... colour is plentiful, bass and dynamics too. This relatively dry recording shows something I´ve never heard before on an organ recording: one is able to pinpoint several pipes. Talk about staging... simply gorgeous. The dryness is reduced a bit on the SACD layer which also sounds a bit crisper.

Of the Symphony No. 8 by Charles-Marie Widor there doesn´t exist any superior recording in the whole wide world. Ben van Oosten is an expert with Widor's music and it is displayed to the max on this recording, he simply is perfect. The recorded sound could be a tiny bit better though. Organ recordings by MDG always display the typical sonic characteristic of diminished bass and pronounced treble that people all over the world connect with recordings coming from Germany. Admittedly, on this CD it´s not as severe as on others by the label from Detmold as it combines this sound with lovely staging and plenty of dynamics. Still, compared to my first two examples of perfect organ sound (it´s the same organ) it´s missing bass, volume and warmth. Thankfully this can be corrected and if one doesn´t want to do this it still serves as an example of an organ recorded with another sonic taste at the highest quality possible. There even might be some people who prefer this different taste even though I think it underepresents this mighty instrument. Anyway, it´s a wonderful recording.

Here we have another recording of the organ at St. Sernin in Toulouse. This one was done in 2002 by the small Dutch company festivo with engineering by Henk Jansen. Recording quality is perfect although a bit timid and not very spectacular compared to the recording above by Jack Renner with material by César Franck. This might have something to do with the fact that the organ was renovated in 1995, since then it partly seems to have lost its aggressive, colourful and thunderous sound on every recording I´ve heard. Staging is impeccable, this is just one example where this organ doesn´t sound as wide as on the recording from TELARC. I believe this to be its true sound although I don´t know for sure since I´ve never visited the basilica of St. Sernin myself. This release is part of five seperate CDs presenting the Pièces dans différent styles by Alexandre Guilmant, I own the first three discs and all sound alike, their quality is high and consistent. The organist Herman van Vliet could play a bit more fluid but it´s possible that I´m wrong about this since I´ve heard never an interpretation from another organist. Very recommended.

There it is again... the German sound from MDG... this time a bit more mid-centric without too much highs or lows. Still, staging is impressive, sonic colour and dynamics are too. The romantic organ (not "romantic" as in French romanticism) from 1855 looks beautiful and sounds beautiful, the recording captures this perfectly albeit a bit too friendly and not very engaging. But for music to be heard when you come home from a hard days work I can recommend this. The interpretation of Liszts' works by Michael Schönheit are equally friendly. This recording comes as an SACD - but don´t bother playing the SACD layer if you´re looking for enhanced frequency response, the frequency band beyond 22.050 Hz contains no information at all (apart from DSD quantization noise). You can also buy this at HDTracks - but the same is valid there. Apart from this still recommended.