Christian von Blohn

Christian von Blohn – Widor: Organ Symphonies, Vol. 5 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 21, 2022 · Comments off

The personal generosity that made the Scottish composer Ronald Stevenson (1928–2015) such a warm and vibrant character extended also to his writing-desk: around a quarter of his enormous output is given over to transcriptions, mostly for piano, of music by other composers. Here he pays homage to three earlier colleagues whose music he particularly esteemed: Purcell, Delius and van Dieren. Stevenson described his version of Van Dieren’s String Quartet No. 5 (1931) as “transcribed as a piano sonata (which B. v. D. never composed)” – and thus it became the piano sonata which Stevenson himself never composed. The album ends with Stevenson’s brief but achingly beautiful harmonisation of Purcell’s The Queen’s Dolour – as exquisite an example of the transcriber’s art as anyone could wish.

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Christian von Blohn – Widor: Organ Symphonies, Vol. 4 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 21, 2022 · Comments off

This fourth volume in Christopher Guild’s ongoing survey of the piano music of the pianist-composer Ronald Stevenson (1928–2015) – a major figure in the cultural life of twentieth- century Scotland – presents works inspired by the human voice, where Stevenson was concerned above all to make the piano sing, to allow it to express human feeling as naturally as possible. That concern can be heard both in his own pieces and his many transcriptions of music by other composers, which balance sophisticated craftsmanship and a refreshing emotional directness.

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Christian von Blohn – Widor: Organ Symphonies, Vol. 3 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 21, 2022 · Comments off

This second album of piano music by the Scottish composer Ronald Stevenson (1928– 2015) focuses on several strands of his musical personality: his engagement with the folk traditions of Scotland and with Scottish cultural history, his concern to write rewarding music for young pianists, and his creative friendships with other musicians.

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Christian von Blohn – Evocations: Contemporary Organ Music (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · September 22, 2022 · Comments off

This album of contemporary organ repertoire features fascinating works that display a wide array of influences. Barry Jordan’s Praise Song, heard here its 2018 revision, draws on modern worship songs and African drumming rhythms, an element that also suffuses part of Thierry Escaich’s Évocation II, a work of electrifying intensity and vibrant colour. Arvo Pärt’s starkly beautiful Annum per annum is featured alongside Theo Brandmüller’s last work Sternenklänge. Dialogue vers les étoiles by Christian von Blohn – a student of Brandmüller – acts as a moving posthumous dialogue with his teacher.

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Christian von Blohn – Widor – Organ Symphonies, Vol. 5 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 25, 2021 · Comments off

Widor’s cycle of ten organ symphonies underwent profound development and transformation over many years. Classical elements became more obviously virtuosic and, by the time of these Op. 42 symphonies, his musical language had become monumental.

Symphony No. 5 in F minor is world famous for a single movement, its concluding Toccata, a moto perpetuo of astonishing brilliance, but the whole work is imbued with structural and musical genius. Striking rhythms, dynamic contrasts and technical roulades mark out Symphony No. 6 in G minor. Also included is a graceful movement from Symphony No. 8 that Widor later omitted.

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Christian von Blohn – Widor – Organ Symphonies, Vol. 4 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 25, 2021 · Comments off

Widor’s cycle of organ symphonies sits at the heart of his compositional achievement. They are vivid and innovative – none more so than Symphony No. 8 in B major, which takes performer and listener alike to the limits of the genre: its glittering sonorities, lyric intensity and technical power offer a tour-de-force of organ writing. The artfully woven Symphonie romane, the last of the ten, utilises a Gregorian chorale in music of increasing splendour, melancholy and, finally, sublime peace.

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Christian von Blohn – Widor – Organ Symphonies, Vol. 3 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 25, 2021 · Comments off

Charles-Marie Widor’s ten organ symphonies sit at the heart of his extensive oeuvre. They reveal Widor’s mastery of the form with their profundity, technical difficulty and sonorous colour. Symphony No. 7, Op. 42, No. 3 inaugurated a new, orchestral approach to the genre and encompasses dreamlike sonorities, Chopinesque melancholy and majestic bravura. The Symphonie gothique, Op. 70 makes explicit reference to Gregorian chant, developing a kind of theological ‘programme music’ that is both austere and consolatory.

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