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Organ CDs with really deep bass

I'd like to request and share information with other classical-music audiophiles who are interested in classical pipe organ CDs that are exceptionally well recorded and have really deep bass. I have a couple of recommendations for now, and I'd be interested in hearing recommendations from any of you who are into classical pipe organ CDs that permit your state-of-the-art subwoofer to strut its stuff. (Please, no arguments/diatribes here about analog vs. digital, LP vs. CD. Plenty of room for that elsewhere.)

1. Jean Guillou, organist; Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky, 3 Dances from Petrouchka; Dorian CD DOR-90117. D. B. Keele, who used to write speaker and subwoofer reviews for Audio, used this as one of his references for testing subwoofers and called it "one of my favorite bass demos." It has potent levels of really deep bass. As organ buffs know, most medium-to-large pipe organs have at least one (and sometimes more) 32-foot pipe (usually but not always a pedal pipe); this pipe has a fundamental of 16 Hz. This is one of the few recordings I know of that contains this note. An amazing, reference-quality recording. If you'd like to get evicted and are looking for a lease-breaker, this CD played on a good system with a first-class sub should do the trick. (All of the Dorian CDs I have tried of Guillou playing European organs of his design (three of them) have reference-quality sound and seemingly unlimited bottom-end response.)

2. Michael Murray, organist; The Ruffati Organ in Davies Symphony Hall: A Recital of Works by Bach, Messiaen, Dupre, Widor & Franck; Telarc CD CD-80097. Although not as colorful as the Guillou/Dorian CD above, this excellent CD also has prodigious deep bass that will give your sub plenty to do. To my ears, Telarc does a better job of recording Michael Murray (one of the best organists of our day) playing pipe organs than it does of recording orchestras. There are a number of superb Telarc CDs of Murray playing various interesting organs. This is not my favorite overall, but it is outstanding for deep bass.

Now let's hear from you guys. I'm all ears. Thanks.
texasdave

Showing 1 response by mahler123

mahler123
3,058 posts
 

My spouse is pretty tolerant of me playing Orchestral works at loud volumes but is absolutely allergic to Organ music at any volume.  It reminds her of church and since she grew up in the Boston area having to endure CCD from one of the Priests later exposed in the abuse cases dramatized in the movie Spotlight she just gets immediate revulsion at the sound of the Organ; therefore my Organ music collection is pretty skimpy.

  One of my favorite lps in College was E. Power Biggs playing Bach at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.  The bass in the Passacaglia and Fugue in DMinor would threaten to eject the woofer cone of my Advent 3 bookshelf speakers.  I tried to find that same album in CD and it hadn’t been digitalized at the time (there were other recordings of Biggs in the same work but they just didn’t match my aural memory).

   Even before meeting my wife in my forties (20th anniversary tomorrow!) I had never developed a taste for organ music after Bach.  Widor and his ilk basically give me a headache, and I’ve delved into the Organ Music of Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Brahms, but this music is obscure for a reason, imo.  
  I have always thought that the Organ Symphony of Saint Saens was more notable for its restraint than its ability to spotlight the instrument.  Romantic composers such as Strauss in Zarathustra and Holst do use it to augment low tones and imo one needs at least 1 sub in the system to really get that room filling effect

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