Virgil Fox at Girard - Willan:Introduction Passacaglia & Fugue [Recorded 1941]
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- Vintage recording of Virgil Fox on the Skinner organ of Girard College.
Healey Willan - Introduction, Passacaglia & Fugue
Recorded 1941 - The only published recording of Fox playing this work.
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Видеоклипы
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This is possibly one of my favourite pieces of 20th Century organ music. It is simply a monumental work of fantastic gravitas and excitement.
My goodness, this is incredible. It's all the more profound, mystical and ferocious (by turns) for the way he lets it breathe so freely.
This astounding recording was never released by RCA Victor Red Seal. It required 4 sides (2 recordings). Virgil and I discussed it many times over the 19 years I worked with and for him but never really got an answer as to why it wasn't released. The organ at Girard College was the perfect instrument. It was in his plan to prepare it sooner or later for his concertizing but time did not allow that. It was never released by RCA to my knowledge, nor authorized to be released by the Virgil Fox Estate, however having said that,,I'm glad it is being heard
What a privilege to have worked with such a man. And thanks for your insight.
David: I am hearing this for the first time. Wonderful. I play the rather large piece from the St. Alban festival, but this is so elaborate. Sounds much like our smaller Casavant here in L. Linden. Long live undigitized, acoustic sound. A novelty in 2020.
I own a vinyl copy of "Virgil Fox Plays the Chapel Organ at Girard College", in a gatefold 2-disc edition which I bought from Virgil Fox when he performed at Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, in possibly 1974. I made a point of seeing him again when he played at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a couple years later.
This piece (the Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue by Willian/Willan - what happened with the spelling of his surname?) has haunted me ever since, Fox achieved something special in the moment of performance.
Perfect performance. Virgil in his prime. Bless his life and memory among those of us who were fortunate enough to hear him.
Well he simply let the acoustics breathe and takes care how fast or slow his registrations attack the sound. This is true artwork, simply perfect.
The Reed battery of which you speak at Girard were indeed revoiced to compensate to meet two primary factors, location and the new organists desire. The reeds were done by Jack Berger, from the great MP Moller Company, and the new organist was Carlo Curley
To me the big Tuba doesn't sound all that different now than it did then.
Spectacular playing...and superb musicianship. Between Virgil and Frederick Swann, it's hard to say who's better...they both bring the music to life.
Thanks.
Both Virgil and Fred weren't content just playing the notes on the page. Most every one of the great concert pianists and conductors of the 20th Century were as well. There must be recordings out there of the Riverside Sunday Service on WOR radio when Virgil and Fred were playing. The conducting instructors at Julliard (out the side door, across the street) would go with their students to hear Virgil improvising during a service.
Until I heard this recording, I didn't realize that Virgil included this work in his repertoire. For many years, Fred was the only major artist who played it....he really kept it alive, and I'm happy that a younger generation of organists has embraced it.
Very interesting to hear Fox being neither the spark-shooting megavirtuoso nor the ultra-Romantic arranger but simply a good organist, subservient to the music. This is my favourite recording of the Willan and also my favourite of Fox. The Skinner in the Celestial Bathtub sounds as fantastic as ever - and of course this was before some of the big reeds were revoiced. Peter Sykes' Holst Planets on the same organ (also on RUclips) is just amazing...
Notice the clarity of the articulation throughout the fast passages. A feat in that room!
Healey Willan was a Canadian, marvelous composer, organist, and choir director. Of course, Virgil Fox was cute in those days. Heck I was a baby in 1941 L.R.Clements , Toronto Canada
Thank you for making this gem available...never heard Virgil play this. Wow!
6:48 That Solo 8' Flauto Mirabilis....a Skinner specialty evolved from his earlier big Philomela flutes. Sounding as good in 1941 as it does today.
I heard Him do a Live Concert here years ago 94 Psalm and much more NO Music in front of Him I was Blessed to be there
Thanks fore sharing this
Gorgeous !!!!
YES MY LORD!!!!! VIRGIL FOX IS A GENIUS!!!!!
ron baltimore AMEN
I am so sorry to say He was all of that. He is in a state of grace in my heart since heard him at the Filmore in 1970
Touching Infinity.
How in the world did you find this recording? I have practically every record that Virgil recorded, but I never heard this piece before. Incidentally, I saw him perform three times. He was such a nice man
RonN448 Amazing is it not I never hear this before I know this music awesome playing
Allen Spencer Yes, it sure is amazing. I'm not quite sure, but I just might have the record from which this piece was taken. I'll have to look. That picture of him seated at the Riverside Church organ looks very familiar.
@@RonN448 I have this recording - it comes from the double album "Virgil Fox Plays the Chapel Organ at Girard College". This is the best thing on the album, and I love Fox's playing of Bach (I have other albums by him for Bach). I bought my copy from V. Fox after a concert in about 1974.
Learn more about the music of Healey Willan at the new Willan website - healeywillan.com/
He still is the greatest organist of the 20th Century.
10:33!!!!
As good as this performance is, in my opinion it does not come up to the level of either the John Tuttle performance on the organ for which it was written, at St. Paul's Anglican, Toronto (Gothic, 1989), nor that of Patrick Wedd at Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Montreal (Naxos, 2002). Both of those have a surer sense of forward thrust and structural integrity. Fox's performance seems more to be an assemblage of pretty moments interspersed with moments calculated to impress. It seems to me that he desired us to notice him stopping to smell the roses a tad too much. Thanks for posting, however: any competent performance of this is interesting.
Thanks for the review of the Willan composition by Virgil Fox. I needed a good laugh. Believing that piece needs "forward thrust" surely also believes you should back up and run over road kill. You missed the profound depth and nearly supernatural message given to a listener by a Master of the organ, like Virgil Fox
How do you compare it to Healy Willan's performance? ruclips.net/video/LyAbktDyOJk/видео.html
@@fredhaight3088 The link you have sent is to Patrick Wedd's performance, released on Naxos in 2002. it is a fine performance. I knew Patrick and heard him play many times, including this. Willan himself didn't play it. Willan the organist was no match for Willan the composer.
@@syncopate50 My mistake. I agree on the quality of Wedd's performance. Willan was a legend when I was a young music student at U of T. I have read that he wrote this when someone claimed that only a composer of Germanic background could compose a proper Passacglia.Do you have anything more to add on it?
@@fredhaight3088 No, other than it is refreshing to have a reasonable, non-confrontational interchange with another musician on this site without a lot of absolutes and superlatives being tossed about. I essentially don't believe in definitive performances. One has to inquire, "Definitive for whom?". I am glad as well to find another Willan enthusiast.