The Organ
The amazingly productive American composer Carson Cooman has, as “Vol. 14” in his Organ Music works suggests, written much for the instrument, of which he himself is a master organist. This latest volume carries his immense output (over 1,300 opus numbers) forward, and those who have been acquiring the earlier releases in this series will need no second bidding to obtain this new release, beautifully and most convincingly recorded on the Orgelbau Fleiter instrument via the Hauptwerk system by Erik Simmons, whose dedication to the composer’s output is now well-known.
Indeed, Cooman could hardly have encountered a finer or more sympathetic interpreter of his work than Erik Simmons, who has mastered the composer’s individual style admirably. Of the various works here, the Three Autumn Sketches make a fascinating triptych, although I found the opening work on the disc, the Fantasia canonical, perhaps more compelling. Native British organists may well be attracted to the two hymn-tune Preludes, on Kingsfold and Hyfrydol, for purely nationalistic reasons, and they will be well rewarded for doing so, but one cannot but admire the consistency of invention, the seemingly endless [stream] of genuine musical reactions to a wide variety of inspiration that Cooman’s music consistently delivers. For those who may baulk at the composer’s teeming creativity, I for one music disabuse them: Cooman’s music, and, especially for readers of this journal, his organ music, is well worth hearing – there may be much to choose from, but it invariably falls upon the ear and within the fingers of all genuine musicians, and as such occupies a special, perhaps, unique, place in contemporary music. (FIVE STARS AWARDED)
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