Tír Na HiFi

DaveF wrote:

Tee-hee!!

Diapason wrote: Tee-hee!!

jaysus, it better be good! ;-)

Course it's good. The question is whether you have the taste to appreciate it... :-P

Good Lord, DaveF you're nearly out-Widoring me at this rate. Next time Ben van Oosten is over he should invite you out for a drink. After all, you're putting his kids through college with all these purchases.

well that will be enough Widor for a while. I've plenty of stuff now that will take me a while to digest. I've taken to Widor's soundworld a lot more easily than most of Bach's Organ works, some of which I find a little bland. But as the recordings above are on the wonderful Cavaille-Coll beasts, perhaps that's one of the main reasons of why I like the Widor recordings so much.

Then it'll be onto the likes of Vierne, Boellmann, Dubois, Gigout, Guilmant, Mulet etc although there doesnt seem to be many recommended recordings of that lot. More of Buxtehude might be a better option.

Vierne definitely next, Ben van Oosten all the way there (his Vierne is even more celebrated than his Widor). In decreasing order of "seriousness" you've got the Symphonies, the 24 Pieces de Fantaisie, and the 24 Pieces en Style Libre. The style is a little more dense than Widor in the Symphonies at least, but possibly more rewarding ultimately.

You also should get some Franck if you don't have it already, his complete "major" works fit nicely on 2 or 3 CDs. Ben hasn't recorded those yet (he told me at his 50th birthday that he'll wait till he's 60 before he records Franck, so only a few years to go!) but the Daniel Roth CDs on Motette are excellent if you can find them at a sensible price. It takes a while to get into Roth's style here, but once you do, going back to a Marie-Claire Alain or a Michael Murray is very difficult.