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The Organ of Westminster
Richard Wagner, Marcel Dupré, Johannes Brahms

Robert Quinney

The Organ of Westminster

Price: € 25.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212008928
Catnr: SIGCD 089
Release date: 01 January 2007
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2 CD
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€ 25.95
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212008928
Catalogue number
SIGCD 089
Release date
01 January 2007
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

Built between 1922 and 1932, the Grand Organ of Westminster Cathedral is considered by many to be the greatest achievement and crowning glory of Henry Willis III, one of England’s finest organ builders. Organist Robert Quinney plays 10 preludes and overtures works by Brahms, Wagner, and Dupre. “It’s quite an achievement to pull off orchestral transcriptions for the organ that don’t have you missing the original, but Robert Quinney manages this on the magnificent Westminster Cathedral instrument

Artist(s)

Robert Quinney (organ)

Robert Quinney is Organist of New College, Oxford. In addition to the daily direction of New College’s world-famous choir, his work comprises teaching, lecturing, and examining, as a Tutorial Fellow of the college and an Associate Professor at the University Faculty of Music. He has conducted New College Choir in concert at home and abroad – notably in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and with The English Concert in New York City and at Wigmore and Cadogan Halls in London. Under his direction the choir continues to make recordings for its own label, Novum; the first, a disc of Symphony Anthems by John Blow, was shortlisted for a 2017 Gramophone Award: ‘an assured synthesis of elegant musicality, judicious ear for...
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Robert Quinney is Organist of New College, Oxford. In addition to the daily direction of New College’s world-famous choir, his work comprises teaching, lecturing, and examining, as a Tutorial Fellow of the college and an Associate Professor at the University Faculty of Music. He has conducted New College Choir in concert at home and abroad – notably in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and with The English Concert in New York City and at Wigmore and Cadogan Halls in London. Under his direction the choir continues to make recordings for its own label, Novum; the first, a disc of Symphony Anthems by John Blow, was shortlisted for a 2017 Gramophone Award: ‘an assured synthesis of elegant musicality, judicious ear for contrapuntal detail and informed scholarship’.
He maintains a parallel career as a solo organist, and is a prolific recording artist: his discs of organ music by J.S. Bach, Elgar, Dupré, Wagner and Brahms (and several CDs with Westminster Abbey Choir and The Sixteen) have been widely acclaimed. In February 2017 he made his debut at the Royal Festival Hall with an all-Bach recital, and later in the same year appeared for the first time at the BBC Proms, playing organ music by Bach and Mendelssohn.
Robert Quinney read music at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was Organ Scholar. After four years as Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, he became Sub-Organist of Westminster Abbey in 2004. While at the Abbey he performed on concert tours to the United States, Australia and Russia, at several televised services including the Marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. In April 2013 he moved to Peterborough Cathedral, where he was Director of Music for 16 months. Between 2009 and 2014 he was Director of Oundle for Organists, whose residential courses continue to attract young organists from all over the world.

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Composer(s)

Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner was an important innovator of music in his time. He is best known for his operas, which he himself preferred to refer to as musical dramas. He wrote the texts (the libretti) himself and sought to make a Gesamtkunstwerk, the ideal union of text, music and theatre. Over time, this lead to grandiose musical dramas which were performed in a specially built theater for these works in the small town of Bayreuth. Wagner's greatest critic, the philosopher Nietzsche, named his former friend the 'greatest miniaturist of music who in the smallest of space squeezed an endless amount of sense and sweetness'. Nietzsche regarded this as a sympton of decadence, yet it does portray the large variety of treasures which can...
more

Richard Wagner was an important innovator of music in his time. He is best known for his operas, which he himself preferred to refer to as musical dramas. He wrote the texts (the libretti) himself and sought to make a Gesamtkunstwerk, the ideal union of text, music and theatre. Over time, this lead to grandiose musical dramas which were performed in a specially built theater for these works in the small town of Bayreuth.

Wagner's greatest critic, the philosopher Nietzsche, named his former friend the "greatest miniaturist of music who in the smallest of space squeezed an endless amount of sense and sweetness". Nietzsche regarded this as a sympton of decadence, yet it does portray the large variety of treasures which can be found in Wagner's music: the mysterious fantasy stories of the love potion of Tristan & Isolde, Wotan's spear, the sea of flames of Brünhilde, the sword of Siegfried... Still the real main character is the orchestra, which shines its light on all the true intentions and feelings of these heroes with great depth.

Both as a composer and as an individual, Wagner remains a subject of controversy and emotional discussions. By many he is hailed as a hero, and by equally many others completely dismissed. But his influence as a composer and musical innovator is undeniable!


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Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the 'Three Bs' of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.   Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become...
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Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.
Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Within his meticulous structures is embedded, however, a highly romantic nature.

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Press

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Disc #1
01.
Academic Festival Overture Op 80
11:44
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
02.
Variations on a theme by Haydn Op 56: Chorale St Antoni:: Chorale St Antoni - Andante
02:13
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
03.
Variations on a theme by Haydn Op 56:: Variation 1 - Vivace
01:41
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
04.
Variations on a theme by Haydn Op 56:: Variation 2 - Vivace
01:19
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
05.
Variations on a theme by Haydn Op 56:: Variation 3 - Con moto
02:13
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
06.
Variations on a theme by Haydn Op 56:: Variation 4 - Andante
03:07
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
07.
Variations on a theme by Haydn Op 56:: Variation 5 - Poco presto
01:06
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
08.
Variations on a theme by Haydn Op 56:: Variation 6 - Vivace
01:38
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
09.
Variations on a theme by Haydn Op 56:: Variation 7 - Grazioso
03:09
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
10.
Variations on a theme by Haydn Op 56:: Variation 8 - Poco presto
01:08
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
11.
Variations on a theme by Haydn Op 56:: Finale - Andante
04:16
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
12.
Wir wandelten Op 96 no 2
04:08
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
13.
Adagio from Violin Sonata No 3 Op 108
05:22
(Johannes Brahms) Robert Quinney
14.
Siegfried-Idyll
20:48
(Richard Wagner) Robert Quinney
15.
Prelude to Act 1, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
10:35
(Richard Wagner) Robert Quinney

Disc #2
01.
Three Preludes and Fugues Op 7:: Prelude in B major
02:59
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
02.
Three Preludes and Fugues Op 7:: Fugue in B major
03:59
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
03.
Three Preludes and Fugues Op 7:: Prelude in F minor
04:19
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
04.
Three Preludes and Fugues Op 7:: Fugue in F minor
05:53
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
05.
Three Preludes and Fugues Op 7:: Prelude in G minor
04:17
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
06.
Three Preludes and Fugues Op 7:: Fugue in G minor
03:21
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
07.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Theme
00:52
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
08.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 1: Larghetto
00:53
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
09.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 2: Poco animato
00:34
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
10.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 3: Cantabile
01:57
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
11.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 4: Vif
00:27
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
12.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 5: Vivace
00:52
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
13.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 6: Plus modéré
00:47
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
14.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 7: Vivace
00:42
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
15.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 8: Cantabile
02:30
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
16.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 9: Animé
00:51
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
17.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 10 Fugue
01:44
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
18.
Variations sur un Noël Op 20:: Variation 10 (Fugato): Non troppo vivace
01:18
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
19.
Evocation Op 37:: Moderato
08:58
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
20.
Evocation Op 37:: Adagio con tenerezza
09:55
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
21.
Evocation Op 37:: Allegro deciso
07:38
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
22.
Cortége et Litanie Op 19 no 2
05:49
(Marcel Dupré) Robert Quinney
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