Like Virgil Fox before him, Jean-Baptiste Robin has a mission to popularize the organ by performing music on it that might already be familiar in other versions. The French virtuoso already has an estimable discography of his own and other composers' music, including a well-received debut on Brilliant Classics, 'Symphonic Organ' (94726), which features the showpiece E.M. Skinner instrument now located in the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio. For his latest album, Robin has pitched up in Los Angeles to play the kaleidoscopic Rosales organ installed in 2004 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall organ. This has already featured on recordings of the Saint-SaÃ«ns Third Symphony, and it's reeds and mixtures are eminently suited to the colors of the French Romantic repertoire. And in a hall sponsored by Disney, why not tell magical stories? Robin has devised a fairy-tale for organ, opening with an improvisation on the March from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. Clouds gather over the grim passacaglia opening DuruflÃ©'s three-movement Suite Op. 5 (dedicated to Dukas, he of the Sorcerer's Apprentice) but they clear in the lilting Sicilienne, and the sun shines brilliantly over the concluding Toccata, a true organ showpiece. There follows the dreamy Clair de lune, whose gently sustained mood is admirably suited to sensitive organ registration, and the 'Raindrop' Prelude of Chopin. Preceding his own powerful reflection, The Hands of Time, Robin plays his own transcription of the Mother Goose Suite by Ravel. Inspired by the composer's orchestration of the ballet, he accentuates the solo reeds (clarinet, cor anglais, cromorne, oboe), as well as the acutely refined swell box.

Tracklist:

Improvisation On Fairy Tales
Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy From The Nutcracker, Op. 71a
Les Mandores From Cendrillon
Suite, Op. 5: I. Prélude
Suite, Op. 5: II. Sicilienne
Suite, Op. 5: III. Toccata
Suite Bergamasque: III. Clair De Lune
Deuxième Esquisse, Op. 41 No. 2 In B-Flat Minor
Prélude No. 15 In D-Flat Major, Op. 28
Ma Mère L'oye, M.60: I. Pavane De La Belle Au Bois Dormant
Ma Mère L'oye, M.60: II. Petit Poucet
Ma Mère L'oye, M.60: III. Laideronnette, Impératrice Des Pagodes
Ma Mère L'oye, M.60: IV. Les Entretiens De La Belle Et De La Bête
Ma Mère L'oye, M.60: V. Le Jardin Féérique
The Hands Of Time

UPC: 5028421961347
Label: Brilliant Classics
Release Date: 4.3.20
Format: CD

Once Upon A Time / Various - Once Upon a Time (CD)