Hyperion Records
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CDH55211
(Originally issued on CDA66883)
Helios (Hyperion's budget label)

Buy? £6.99

Recording details: February 1996
All Saints, Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom
Produced by Paul Spicer
Engineered by Paul Niederberger
Release date: September 2005
Total duration: 62 minutes 41 seconds

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GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE

'What an unusual but highly successful combination organ, violin and cello turns out to be - Forgotten but highly attractive chamber music' (Classic CD)

'An unexpected delight: charming music, beautifully played and captured in an extraordinarily successful recording. As musical diversions go, this is certainly one to savour.' Editor's Choice (Gramophone)

'This has to be my record of the month!' (Organists' Review)

'… it is hard to imagine Barritt, Lester and Herrick being bettered' (Fanfare, USA)

Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901)
Music for organ, violin & cello
Paul Barritt (violin), Richard Lester (cello), Christopher Herrick (organ)
Suite for organ, violin and cello, Op 149
1
Movement 1: Con moto  [9'11]
2
Movement 2: Thema mit Veränderungen  [8'57]
3
Movement 3: Sarabande  [7'33]
4
Movement 4: Finale  [7'03]
Six Pieces for violin and organ, Op 150
5
No 1: Thema mit Veränderungen  [6'57]
6
No 2: Abendlied  [3'27]
7
No 3: Gigue  [4'36]
8
No 4: Pastorale  [3'50]
9
No 5: Elegie  [3'46]
10
No 6: Ouverture  [7'21]
Joseph Rheinberger, organist of his local church by the age of seven, wrote just before his death (and somewhat autobiographically): 'People die so quickly nowadays; some are even dead long before they notice it'. He is largely remembered today as the composer of twenty seminal organ sonatas, but Rheinberger also produced symphonies, operas, mass settings, and much chamber music, all highly proficient, if sometimes conservative.

The Suite for organ, violin and cello is a genuinely original work: a real piece of chamber music for a rarely exploited combination of instruments, and one with tremendous sweep and vigour. The Six Pieces for violin and organ are equally interesting, the instruments uncharacteristically being treated as equals for much of the work.