Catalogue Connection: 21136

The English label Divine art has long been committed to an internationally little-known composer.

For the 60th On the occasion of the composer James Cook, the busy Scottish organist Kevin Bowyer recorded two of his nine organ symphonies. Organ symphonies are not the typical oeuvre for British composers, but Cook, whose musical career is unusual, is also an exciting personality. He only briefly studied composition at the University of Oxford in 1994, a large part of his musical creations goes to sacred music.

The organ symphonies No. 8 ‘Olympian’ and No. 9 ‘Apollonian’ presented here were both created in 2006, and can be described by their harmonic concept as an update of the French organ symphonies of the late 19th century. century. The eighth symphony is four movements, with two substantial corner movements, a quotation from the Baroque combines the reference to Mount Olympus with a ‘stairse into heaven’. In fact, the music is deeply spiritually transcendental, but cannot be assigned to a Central European, British or international tradition in terms of pon. Even if the middle clauses are called ‘Anglaise’ and ‘Pastorale’, this has nothing in common with the so-called English Pastoral School. ‘Pastorale’ is formally perhaps one of the strictest sentences in terms of sentences, perhaps one can build a bridge to Max Reger’s passaglie and canon-like organ-like movements on the one hand and to polyrhythmics on the other.

Comparable to the French organ symphonies, the Ninth Organ Symphony is seven-sent, with only the final movement of an extensive scope. Cook described the symphony as a work of light and movement, and this, according to Cook, describes a long hot summer day trip to the sea in Victorian and Edwardian times. One wishes that Cook would bring less extra-musical thoughts into his music – this distracts a little from their qualities and rather highlights the eclectic weaknesses.

We know from his discography that Bowyer has no technical difficulties, but his tonal aesthetics have changed significantly in recent years compared to his Sorabji and Alkan recordings. Always curious about unknown terrain, this is precisely the essential constant of his discography: the unknown, the surprising, the unfamiliar. Cook offers plenty of this, and Bowyer’s creative skills can be expressed unbroken. The recording was made on Bowyer’s ‘house organ’ of the Glasgow University Memorial Chapel, a 1927 Willis organ that was renovated by Harrison & Harrison in 2005. Since the renovation, Bowyer can be heard regularly on this organ.

James Cook wrote his 8th and 9th symphonies in 2006. They are works in the tradition of the French organ symphony, concertante works on a liturgical instrument without reference to sacred acts. However, the gods do play a role in James Cook’s compositions, which refer to Greek mythology.

Symphony No. 8 is about Olympus, about natural atmospheres cloaked in mystical, dark, shimmering timbres. Kevin Bowyer orchestrates this atmosphere with great sensitivity, constantly striving to build tension and break through the twilight with brilliant clarity.

However, some lengths prevent a consistently intense narrative structure, which is also due to the inner architecture of the symphonies. In Symphony No. 8, long outer movements frame the relatively short middle section.

In the Ninth, the slow final movement is longer than the preceding six movements combined. This work also contains many beautiful, original ideas (the short march and the Presto that follows it).

The symphony refers to Apollo, the god of light, and depicts a day in early 20th century England with sunrise, country walks, hustle and bustle, and the fading of daylight. Once again, Kevin Bowyer uses bright colors that fade like a fine shadow toward the end.