Customer Reviews

Heavy Organ at Carnegie Hall

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Virgil Fox was ahead of his contemporaries in bringing Bach and the power of the organ to the masses, a fresh departure from the classical academician's rigid structure and expectations on the audience; the familiar insular approach to performance. Mr. Fox played Bach the way it was meant to be played-- with grace, power and stunning technique, with emotional delivery and thunder. Taking to the road and the roaring rock-concert circuit with a specially equipped touring organ was a natural outgrowth of his desire to share his passion for this grand music. None before or after him has trod such an intrepid path. The legendary Heavy Organ of Virgil Fox is well worth the listen-- set out some candles, dim the lights and turn up the volume. This one's a hair-raiser!

Want to hear a performer really communicate with his audience? This is the CD for you. A diverse and impinging introduction to the music of J.S. Bach, as well as Virgil's musical stylings, make this CD a must-have for anyone interested in classical organ, Bach, or how to give a successful live performance of classical music. Although the crowd's boistreous enthusiasm occasionally interrupts the flow of the show, there isn't a single bad cut on the entire album.

This CD is significant in that it is so far the only Heavy Organ performance to make it to CD. Virgil Fox's Heavy Organ tour did a lot to popularize classical organ music and bring it to a wider audience. Although the Rodgers "Black Beauty" touring organ sounds a bit dated by the standards of today's digital instruments, it was state of the art for analog organs in its day. So the sound might not knock your socks off, but this is as close as you'll get to imagining what it must have been like to see Fox live at the peak of his popularity.

I grew up listening to organ music, largely because my mother studied organ for several years. We often went to hear Virgil Fox, whose performances were supreme and whose entertainment abilities were second to none. In this CD of Virgil Fox, Heavy Organ at Carnegie Hall, the listener gets the best of this magnificent organist.

We had seen Fox a couple of times in New York. It was really fun for us to hear his comments again. His style of performing is exciting and beautiful. This performance is great for Bach lovers and especially for those who like to hear a little personality from the performer during a concert. Enjoy!!

I HAD THE GREAT PLEASURE OF KNOWING VIRGIL FOX IN MY YOUNGER YEARS (I'M 66 NOW) AND I NEVER KNEW ANYONE SINCE WHO COULD COMPARE TO THIS GREAT MAN! TO KNOW VIRGIL WAS TO LOVE HIM. HE WAS WARM, GRACIOUS, DELIGHTFULLY ECCENTRIC, KIND,FLAMBOUYANT,AND ABSOLUTELY THE MOST TALENTED MUSICIAN OF HIS TIME!
THIS RECORDING BRINGS ALL OF THOSE ATTRIBUTES TO LIFE. JUST TO LISTEN TO HIS DYNAMIC AND BOOMING VOICE ONCE AGAIN IS SUCH A PLEASURE! HIS ZEST FOR LIFE AND HIS BELOVED BACH WAS EVIDENT IN EVERY EXPRESSIVE WORD HE UTTERED! HE COULD PAINT SUCH A WORD PICTURE OF THE COMPOSITION HE WAS ABOUT TO PLAY THAT YOU COULD ALMOST HEAR IT IN YOUR HEAD BEFORE HE EVER TOUCHES A KEY! WHEN THE KEYS ARE FINALLY TOUCHED YOU'LL UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M SAYING. THE MAN WAS A THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL GENIUS!
UNFORTUNATELY, HE HAD A FEW ISOLATED PEOPLE WHO JUST COULD NOT TOLERATE HIS OVER THE TOP PRESENTATIONS. ALL THEY SAW WAS THE SMOKE AND LIGHT SHOW SURROUNDING HIM ON THE STAGE AS HE PLAYED...THEY SAW HIS RINESTONE STUDDED HEELS AND HIS OPERA CAPE AND THEATRICALLY PERFECT PERFORMANCE OF LARGE GESTICULATIONS AND BODY MOVEMENTS. THINGS "THEY" SAID WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN A "PROPER" ORGAN CONCERT SETTING! ONCE IN A HUGE WHILE THEY PICK OUT A SOUR NOTE...WHICH NO ONE ELSE CAN HEAR, BUT THE CRITICS JUST LOVE TO TEAR DOWN PERFECTION! HIS EXPLANATION FOR THIS WAS SIMPLY AND CORRECTLY THAT, "THOSE WHO CAN'T, BECOME CRITICS!"
CONSIDERING THE YEAR THAT THIS WAS RECORDED, A TIME WHEN RECORDING WAS NOT PERFECTED TO THE ART IT IS TODAY, IT IS STILL A MAGNIFICENT RENDERING OF ONE OF THE WORLDS GREATEST TALENTS TO EVER HAVE LIVED AND ANYONE WHO HEARS IT WILL REALIZE THE WORDS, PIPE ORGAN AND THE NAME VIRGIL FOX ARE WORDS THAT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE UTTERED TOGETHER! THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO DESCRIBE THE GREATNESS THAT IS VIRGIL FOX! ALTHOUGH GONE NOW SOME 25 YEARS, HE WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN AND HIS RECORDINGS WILL BE AN INSPIRATION FOR YOUNG ORGANISTS FOR DECADES TO COME!

This recording was originally issued as Volume 2; another Heavy Organ at CArnegie Hall album was made a year before this one and hopefully will be reissued on CD at some point. This album is a good example of Virgil Fox's approach to Bach's music. One hears kaleidoscopic registrations (a performance trademark of Fox's that was always controversial) and a dramatic, fiery style of playing. There are fewer quiet works on this album -- one, the final St Matthew Passion chorus, really doesn't come off well due to the overused tremolo and an articulation that doesn't allow the music to flow well. But I think the best track on the album is the shortest: Fox's performance of "Rejoice, Beloved Christians", shows phenomenal technique and lightning speed, yet is utterly delicate and graceful -- a rendition that is simply unassailable. The Wedge Prelude and Fugue, though containing some mistakes, is a very dramatic and noble interpretation. This record is far, far superior to Fox's first Heavy Organ album from Fillmore East, which suffers from numerous wrong notes and mistakes.

I grew up on Virgil Fox. But this CD really butchered the performance. The old vinyl Heavy Organ series was actually cleaner sounding, had less of Fox's peculiarities and over-talk. A disappointment.