Listen & tracks

6 works · 45:45

1 Fantasia and Fugue on B.A.C.H. Franz Liszt 10:13
2 Hymne d'action de grâce ("Te Deum") Jean Langlais 4:31
Elf Choralvorspiele, Op. 122Johannes Brahms 4 movements9:09
1. 3 2. Herzliebster Jesu 1:55
2. 4 5. Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele 1:39
3. 5 10. Herzlich tut mich verlangen 3:00
4. 6 11. O Welt, ich muss dich lassen 2:35
7 Fantaisie sur le Te Deum et guirlandes alleluiatique Charles Tournemire 4:44
8 Choral No. 2 in B minor César Franck 13:00
9 Transports de joie d'une âme devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienne Olivier Messiaen 4:08

Peter Nicholson plays the 1890 T.C. Lewis organ of St. Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, in a programme spanning Liszt's Fantasia and Fugue on B.A.C.H., Brahms's late chorale preludes, Franck's Choral No. 2 in B minor, and twentieth-century works by Tournemire, Langlais and Messiaen.

Each piece was recorded in a single complete take on the cathedral instrument, whose original Lewis tonal scheme survives largely intact.

Reviews

Starting with a splendid and lively performance of the Liszt BACH, Peter Nicholson continues with some rarely heard Brahms. Splendidly persuasive playing.

— D.R.C., The Organ

Artists

Peter Nicholson

organ

Peter Nicholson studied organ at St. Paul's Cathedral with June Nixon, the then Cathedral Organist. In 1976 he was awarded the Herbert Davis Memorial Prize, and two years later, obtained first-class honours in fourth year practical studies in organ at the University of Melbourne. In 1979 he gained a Fellowship from Trinity College, London in organ performing, and also spent some time studying the works of Bach and Messiaen with Gillian Weir.

Johannes Brahms

composer

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. His music for piano, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and voice remains central to the concert repertoire.

César Franck

composer

César Franck’s music carries the weight and colour of the Romantic organ loft into symphony, chamber music and song. The Violin Sonata, Symphony in D minor, organ Chorales and Pièce héroïque, and the serene Panis angelicus remain central to the repertoire he shaped.

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.

Franz Liszt

composer

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic era. His vast output reshaped piano technique, invented the symphonic poem and pushed harmony toward the twentieth century.

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.