Lied to the Flowers/Lied to the Sun - Flor Peeters: David Briggs at St John the Divine NYC скачать в хорошем качестве

Lied to the Flowers/Lied to the Sun - Flor Peeters: David Briggs at St John the Divine NYC

Lied to the Flowers and Lied to the Sun (Lied Symphony, Op. 66) - Flor Peeters played by David Briggs at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, NYC In the immediate aftermath of British decimalization in 1971 one of my first major purchases (well, major for a nine year-old!) was a 99p LP on the Vista label named ‘The Organ of St George’s Hall, Liverpool, played by Dr Caleb Jarvis’. I was duly chastised by my late father for becoming obsessed by it – he thought my headphones were actually surgically grafted onto my ears! Seventeen years later, I was to make my first CD on this remarkable instrument – how excited I would have been to know this, as a nine year old, having absorbed the whole specification by memory! The final two tracks on this LP were two movements by Flor Peeters, ‘Lied to the Flowers’ and ‘Lied to the Sun’. Flor Peeters (1903 – 1986) was, in many ways, the Belgium equivalent of the French organ virtuoso Marcel Dupré. He was a greatly respected recitalist (playing concerts all over the world) and was also a distinguished teacher and musicologist, as well as prolific composer. He wrote over three hundred pieces in greatly varying guises: piano and carillon pieces; chamber music; songs; choral music; cantatas; pieces for organ and voice and organ and brass, as well as over fifty pieces for solo organ. The ‘Lied Symphony’ is a vividly pictorial work and was inspired by the composer’s American tour of 1947. In his own words, the Symphony is a “thanksgiving hymn for nature in God’s creation”. ‘Lied to the Flowers’, has a character of restrained opulence. In it, Flor Peeters depicts the wealth of fauna of California. It is profoundly impressionistic and has all the freedom one associates with music inspired by Gregorian Chant. The final movement of the Symphony, ‘Lied to the Sun’, is a virtuoso, French-style toccata movement in A B A form. I hope you enjoy this performance, recorded a few months back on the Walker Technical Company digital organ, currently installed in the cathedral as we await the homecoming of Aeolian-Skinner Opus 150A in late November!