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The Organ

The indefatigable Carson Cooman con­tinues to put music lovers and com­posers in his debt with this fascinating and very successful disc of organ music by the Polish composer Marian Sawa (1937-2005).

Sawa’s music is little-known, outside of post-communist Poland, but he was a singular figure before the advent of glasnost or perestroika, as the intriguing Aria (1971) on this well-filled disc demonstrates.

Throughout this compelling prog­ramme, one can readily discern the inner intensity of Sawa’s invention. This is music that in many ways had to be written – it does not court popu­larity at any time, but retains the fascination of drawing the committed listener into its rarified and unique sound-world.

Nor is this ‘mystery-mongering’ for the sake of it: Sawa uses whatever means at his disposal, often juxtaposing ‘statements’ against and alongside one another with telling effect – as, most directly perhaps, in that selfsame Aria ­’sung’, as it were, not as an arioso but as a sequence of ideas drawn from a short series yet equally united by a creative thread that holds the attention.

Sawa’s Suite of 1980 is a remarkably varied combination of expressive ideas ­often intriguingly attractive, yet never meretricious – and, all things consid­ered, this release is fully recommended to those keen to explore the range of relatively recent organ music with which they otherwise not have the opportunity of coming into contact. The presentat­ion, as always from this source, is excellent.  (FIVE STARS)