Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

This interesting recital starts with a well known tune, Charles Ives' "Variations On 'America'" which is not from Bernstein's "West Side Story" but is instead a popular hymn-tune over there. Unfortunately for us it is also the tune for our National Anthem and it is impossible to hear this without putting in the words, which makes a quirky piece even quirkier. Fast-forward to Samuel Barber's beautiful "Adagio For Strings". It works very well as an organ piece but, for this listener, has become so over-used by Hollywood as to become a cliché. We need to start a campaign to reclaim Barber's Adagio. Most of the remaining pieces are less familiar although the names of the composers are less surprising, including César Franck, Olivier Messiaen, Jean Langlais, Patrick Gowers, Jehan Alain, and Maurice Duruflé. Philip Scriven is organist and director of music at Lichfield Cathedral and this is his first recording as organist. We hope that it is the first of many.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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