Listen & tracks

11 works · 73:33

1 Te Deum laudamus, BuxWV 218 Dieterich Buxtehude 12:29
2 Fantasia Chromatica Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck 8:20
3 Komm, Heiliger Geist, BWV 651 Johann Sebastian Bach 4:49
4 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659 Johann Sebastian Bach 3:51
5 Votre Bonté Grand Dieu from Deuxième Suitte de Noëls Claude-Bénigne Balbastre 7:25
6 Sur la tombe de Buffalo Bill from Mosaïques Jean Langlais 4:00
7 Joie et Clarté des Corps Glorieux from Les Corps Glorieux Olivier Messiaen 5:34
8 Chants d’Oiseaux from Livre d’Orgue Olivier Messiaen 7:11
9 The Wedding in Cana from Four Biblical Dances Petr Eben 6:36
10 Pavan Gary Sieling 3:00
11 Variations on Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring Jangoo Chapkhana 10:18

Designed by Ronald Sharp and finished in the mid-1970s, the Perth Concert Hall organ is a three-manual mechanical-action instrument of more than three thousand pipes, firmly in the Orgelbewegung tradition.

Chapkhana’s programme moves from Buxtehude, Sweelinck and Bach through Balbastre, Langlais, Messiaen and Eben to his own variations on Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, written for the Organ Society of Western Australia and first heard on this organ.

In the artist’s words

Widely lauded as one of Australia’s most formidable all-round musicians, Jangoo Chapkhana is a conducting graduate from the prestigious Peter the Great Academy of Music (St Petersburg). He is the founder and Artistic Director of the chorale Lux et Veritas and the chamber orchestra Camerata 1685. An organist of international standing, he has presented solo recitals in the United States, England, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Egypt, South Africa, France, Italy and Argentina. His career highlights have included organ recitals in Westminster Abbey and Washington National Cathedral. Also an accomplished jazz pianist, Jangoo Chapkhana’s third jazz album Grand Bazaar was released to much acclaim in 2017.

“Jangoo Chapkhana was a model artist, adapting to a range of demands and interpretative subtleties with praiseworthy subtlety. In matters of style, Chapkhana was beyond reproach.” (Neville Cohn, The West Australian)

— Jangoo Chapkhana

Reviews

This is no Romantically-disposed instrument but one designed firmly in line with Orgelbewegung principles and as a result, generally has a very bright, clear and light sound. The quieter tracks (the Sweelinck in particular) successfully demonstrate the recreation of a 17th–century soundworld. The Messiaen and Langlais works draw on the influences of the neo-Baroque instruments that were everywhere at the time of their writing, and are very ably demonstrated, with thoughtful, sensitive playing. Chapkhana’s own work, commissioned to celebrate the Organ Society of Western Australia’s 40th anniversary in 2006, is also well-suited to the instrument on which it received its première.

— Daniel Mitterdorfer, OHTA

Artists

Jangoo Chapkhana

organ

Jangoo Chapkhana is an all-round musician, including being an organist who has performed many other countries was well as in Australia.

Ronald Sharp

Ronald Sharp (1929-2021) was a self-taught Australian organ builder whose most notable instruments were the organ at the Sydney Opera House (1979), the chapel at Ormond College, Melbourne (1974) and Perth Concert Hall (1976) as well as a number of others. He specialised in mechanical, tracker action instruments in the baroque tradition, but using modern materials.

Johann Sebastian Bach

composer

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer and organist of the late Baroque. His sacred and secular music for choir, orchestra, organ and solo instruments remains among the foundations of the Western concert and church repertory.

Claude-Bénigne Balbastre

composer

Claude Balbastre wrote flamboyant French harpsichord character pieces and Noëls that thrived in Parisian salons and on the organ: portrait pieces full of colour, dance rhythm and courtly swagger, still vivid when the keys rattle and the stops open.

Dieterich Buxtehude

composer

Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637–1707) was a Danish-born organist and composer of the middle Baroque, long based at Lübeck. His organ works remain central to the standard repertoire.

Petr Eben

composer

Petr Eben wrote prolifically for the organ, alongside vocal, choral and orchestral scores. His language is neoexpressionist with flashes of impressionist colour, often grown from public improvisation into lasting recital cycles.

Jean Langlais

composer

Jean Langlais wrote organ and sacred choral music of rich, complex harmony and overlapping modes, shot through with an earthy Celtic folkiness that sits beside Franck, Tournemire and the mid-century French school.

Olivier Messiaen

composer

Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) was a French composer, organist and ornithologist whose colour-rich, rhythmically intricate music stands among the major achievements of the twentieth century.

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

composer

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621) was a Dutch composer, organist and teacher whose keyboard and sacred vocal music stand at the turn from Renaissance to Baroque. His organ works and psalm settings remain central to the early keyboard and choral repertory.