Catalogue Connection: 25196

This newly received item (titled Invocazione brillante) is the third disc of Carson Cooman’s organ music sent to me for review in this issue, and all three have shown the composer at his most felicitous. The works on this disc are consistently arranged in a pattern of a more dramatic or extro­vert movement alternating with a quieter, more introverted one. The opening piece, Musica da processione, written for the wedding of Hartmann’s daughter, is an appropriately festive fanfare. Arioso is gentle and winning, lyric in the best vein of the verismo school. The dissonances that open the fol­lowing Cortege, Intermezzo and Litany on the Joseph-Hymnus make for a jarring transition (perhaps the ordering of the pieces on the disc should have been different to avoid this). This work is one of three on the disc dedicated to Cooman’s friend and colleague, the organist and composer Andreas Willscher, whose recordings I have also reviewed in these pages, and employs the same theme that Willscher used in his own Fantasie über den Joseph-Hymnus. (Exactly what is the “Joseph-Hymnus” theme is nowhere identified.) The work is cast in three movements: the solemn opening procession, a lyric interlude akin to the Arioso, and the extroverted finale with its structure of procla­mation and response. Romanza is curiously a bit off-kilter in its thematic material, with unexpectedly flattened intervals. Praeludium in festo S. Phillippi apostoli, the first of three works on this disc ded­icated to the performer, employs the traditional plainchant melodies from that apostle’s feast day for its thematic basis and is suitably triumphal in mood, with an imitation of Sanctus bells at the close. Another work dedicated to Willscher, Diptych for New Life, is cast in two movements, titled “Aubade” and “Toccata.” The work draws its inspiration from the Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi; Cooman states in his program notes that “As in many of my works, the sun is used as a metaphor for new life.” The first movement is peacefully contemplative, the second exuberant; I found this work, along with the Arioso, particularly attractive. Arioso cantabile returns to the vein of the preceding Arioso, and captures the stillness of lovely sunsets viewed from the islands of Sardinia and Nantucket, MA.

The Suite in F Major, dedicated to Hartmann, is another triptych. The opening “Praeludium” is stately and determined in tone; “Ground” treads with quiet deliberation, in accord with that appella­tion; “Fantasia” features exchanges between martial flourishes and more rapidly flowing material. The Prelude on “Das ist köstlich” (Psalm 92), the final work dedicated to Hartmann, is based on a 17th-century tune that recently gained greater fame as a setting for a paraphrase of Psalm 92 by the East German Lutheran pastor Günter Rutenborn (1912-1976), known for his widely translated the­ological drama The Sign of Jonah. This is a bit more assertive than the other “quiet” pieces on this disc. Invocazione brillante lives up to its nominal billing in its unbuttoned exuberance. Two Nantucket Sketches consists of a peaceful “Idyll” and a spirited, joyous “Danza rustica”; Lullaby is appropriately restful and soothing. The disc closes with another three-movement work, the Sonatina No. 4. Dedicated to Willscher, this is definitely an all-German affair, as can be seen from the move­ment titles: “Hamburg March,” “Pößneck Aria,” and “Ulm Toccata-Fanfare.” The somewhat broadly paced opening march segues into a lyrical interlude, wherein the melody is almost randomly punc­tuated by what sound like the toots of a ship’s whistle piercing early morning fog to signal river traf­fic, followed by the vibrant, assertive close.

To my knowledge, all previous Divine Art recordings of Cooman’s organ works were made with Cooman’s friend and colleague Erik Simmons, so this disc represents a change of pace in that regard. German organist Philip Hartmann, who has taken masterclasses with Daniel Roth and Ben van Oosten, here plays the instrument of his home parish, the Pauluskirche in Ulm in far south-cen­tral Germany. It is a fine instrument, and Hartmann is fully the equal of Simmons as a dedicated in­terpreter of Cooman’s music. The proceedings are well recorded; brief notes by Cooman, plus com­poser and artist bios and complete instrumental specifications, are provided in an English-German booklet. If you already are a fan of Cooman’s music, you will definitely want to add this latest entry to your collection. For those not familiar with him, this or the CD of Christmas-themed music I re­view elsewhere in this issue provide the most enticing entrees into his oeuvre to date; enthusiastically recommended.

As my colleague David DeBoor Canfield already reviewed this disc (titled How Great Our Joy!) in detail in the preceding issue, I can afford to be brief here. This is a collection of 15 pieces that Cooman penned between 2004 and 2018 that employ melodies from various Christmas carols and hymns. Several are well known (Greensleeves, Veni Emmanuel, In dulci jubilo, O du fröhliche, Es ist ein Ros, Resonet in laudibus, Adeste fideles), but others are obscure (the Triptych on a Sorbian Carol draws on a piece from the region in eastern Germany where the organ utilized in this recording is lo­cated).

In all instances Cooman’s treatment of his thematic materials provides a clear statement of the melody early on, followed by piquant, imaginative reworkings that keep the tune recognizable while taking it far afield as well. Particularly attractive to me are the quiet, intimate pieces—O Sleep, Dear Holy Baby and the Three Pastorales on a German Carol (Resonet in laudibus) come most immedi­ately to mind—but all are well done, with the Fantasy on “Adeste fideles” bringing everything to a rousing close. As always, Erik Simmons is an exemplary performer, and the recorded sound captures the Sonnenorgel of Pfarrkirche St. Peter und Paul in Gorlitz, Germany (accessed via the Hauptwerk system) very well indeed. This is just the sort of thing that is needed to break the monotony of hearing the same old Christmas tunes trotted out in the same old unimaginative manner. Make this a 2020 stocking stuffer for your music-loving friends; cheerily recommended.

American composer Carson Cooman (b 1982) is extraordinarily prolific. The Fantasy on ‘Adeste Fideles’ (2018) that concludes this recording is his Opus 1322. This disc is part of a series devoted to his organ works in perfor­mances by Erik Simmons. The booklet con­tains advertisements for 11 other recordings in the series. According to the booklet notes, works by Cooman have appeared in more than 40 recordings on various labels. He is himself an accomplished concert organist specializing in contemporary music, and more than 100 composers have written over 300 pieces especially for him.

Here we have short organ pieces based on Christmas hymns and carols. Some are commissions and others were written as gifts for the composer’s friends. Two pieces were writ­ten in 2004; the rest date from 2013 to 2018. The style is modern but accessible, even when crunchy dissonance is involved. The expressive range is wide, from the wistful ten­derness of the Little Partita on the Polish carol ‘Infant Holy, Infant Lowly’ (2013) and the mysterious quietness of the Meditation on ‘Es ist ein Ros’ (2018) to the bombast of the Voluntary on ‘O du Fröhliche’ (2018) and the Fantasy on ‘Adeste Fideles’.

It is hardly surprising that there is a strong family resemblance among Cooman’s pieces, even with their breadth of expression. With such a huge output it is to be expected that he sometimes repeats himself. If you have heard one of his fanfare introductions, you’ve heard them all. His treatment of the carol melodies is varied. Sometimes he will allow a tune to unfold in full, often with unexpected harmo­nies or rhythmic alterations. Elsewhere he may use fragments of the tune for thematic development. Sometimes the melody is heav­ily disguised, as in the Meditation on ‘Es ist ein Ros’. The backdrop in this piece is a sequence of sustained, quiet chords of rich harmony. A solo line embeds the familiar melody in a melodic elaboration that goes well beyond what Brahms did with the same tune.

I confess that this is my first serious acquaintance with Cooman’s music. My ini­tial impression was that this is music marked by highly imaginative touches but not the stuff of greatness. Subsequent hearings and the writing of colleagues suggest that there is more to him than that. To be fair, this record­ing consists entirely of short pieces, offering little opportunity to gauge the composer’s capacity for larger musical architecture. He has written larger-scale instrumental works and operas. Robert Delcamp spoke highly of earlier releases in the organ series. My friend James Altena, who writes for a competing publication, has declared Cooman “not just a talented com­poser but a genuinely gifted one” The organ is at the Church of SS Peter and Paul in Gorlitz, Germany. It was built by the Swiss firm of Mathis in 1997 with a swell divi­sion added in 2006. The instrument is grounded in the baroque tradition but is large and eclectic enough to play a wide range of repertory convincingly. It is important to note that the instrument was not recorded directly but by means of the Hauptwerk system. In that system, each pipe of an instrument is recorded several times with different key velocities for attack and release. The rever­berant decay of the tone is also recorded to capture the acoustical properties of the room. The data is loaded into the memory of a com­puter, and when connected to an appropriate organ console, the organist is in effect able to play the organ that has been so recorded. The effect here is quite impressive.

The indefatigable Erik Simmons continues to make a valiant effort to keep up in recording the organ works of Carson Cooman, at approximately the rate his gifted organist/composer friend is creating new ones. At some point in the recent past, one or both of them noticed that Cooman’s Christmas-themed organ works, written over a span of a decade and a half, could themselves fill up an entire CD, and so here is the result of that discovery. It has proven to be a most enjoyable addition to my Cooman collection. Of course, it’s not exactly in the midst of the Christmas season as I’m listening to and reviewing this disc (I’m writing these words in March), nor will it be as you’re reading about it sometime around August, but never mind that.

The recital offers a pleasing mix of meditative and joyous pieces. As usual, Cooman is international in his outlook, and has created works based on Christmas carols from places as diverse as the British Isles, Poland, the Basque region of Spain, Gregorian Chant, and even the Sorbian-speaking region of Germany. (The Slavic Sorbs that live near the German border with Poland have been largely “absorbed”—if you will—into the culture and language of Germany).

The program’s opening Fantasia on “Greensleeves” utilizes one of the best-known tunes of the lot, thanks to the like-titled work by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Here, Cooman sets up the tune with some evocative sonorities with the merest hint of this chestnut invoked before it is eventually heard in a complete statement. As is his wont, the composer provides a rich tonal tapestry of which the tune is but one strand, and the work builds up to an impressive concluding climax.

The composer’s imaginative harmonization continues through the gentle setting of the Latin chant-based Veni Emmanuel, which like its predecessor utilizes the tune in a free manner, such that the setting can in no way be considered a mere arrangement. The meditative quality of much of the music in the recital (including Veni) means it would be as appropriate for a worship service as for the concert hall. The Little Partita on a Polish Carol opens in such fashion, but later picks up in rhythmic activity. In the pieces based on lesser-known carols, it is more difficult to ascertain exactly how Cooman is utilizing the tune, but in every case, these works are effective in invoking the spirit of the season, and most pleasing to listen to (as they are undoubtedly to play). One of the most exuberant of all the works is the Voluntary on “O du frohliche,” in which Simmons gets to pull out all the stops, propelling the listener to the edge of his seat.

Collectively, Cooman’s organ music leads me to believe that he may well be the most significant currently active composer for his instrument. Indeed, I listened to the entire recital twice, and found it every bit as enjoyable on the second go-through as on the first.

Erik Simmons plays as well as ever, with finesse and imaginative registration, and must be considered the leading exponent of Cooman’s music, organ or otherwise, given his dozen or more recordings of it to date. The Hauptwerk system that he uses allows him to duplicate the entire stop list of very many notable organs around the world without leaving his home (presumably where these recordings were made). The present recital employs the stops and digitized sounds from the Sonnenorgel of Pfarrkirche St. Peter und Paul located in Gorlitz, Germany, a splendid instrument, and one perfectly suited to this music. Strongly recommended to fans of Cooman, Simmons, Christmas music, or the organ in general.

The disc has 17 Cooman settings of Christmas tunes played by Erik Simmons on the organ of Pfarrkirche St Peter & Paul, Gorlitz as pre-recorded by Jiri Zurek in 2015 using the Hauptwerk system. Full details of each work and of the pipe organ specification are included. Enjoyable.

This is not a Christmas album. This is Christmas music played on a church organ, a different thing altogether. If you want a bland album of festive music, this is not for you. If you already like the organ then, as Carson Cooman undoubtedly says in his day-job as composer-in-residence at the Memorial Church, Harvard University: “Fill your boots”.

This is an album of works for Christmas, many of them arrangements and fantasias on well-loved hymns and carols, and some new dedicated compositions, all played by Erik Simmons. The works were composed over 15 years, either for commissions or as gifts for friends and colleagues. Many carols are familiar, just not so in all countries — this means that while it is a Christmas album, it can be played any time, as what’s popular elsewhere is new to English ears.

Each piece is dedicated to someone: Three Pastorales on a German Carol is dedicated to Andreas Willscher (whose own album we reviewed not so long ago). Even where the songs are familiar, you’d be hard-pressed to spot them immediately. The opener is Fantasia On Greensleeves and the old tune is hard to disguise, though it disappears in places, while Little Fantasia On In Dulci Jubilo is nothing like the cheery Mike Oldfi eld ditty. Other wellknown (to us) tunes include Fantasy on Adeste Fideles (“O come, all ye faithful”). The sleeve notes have more detail about the organ — St Peter und Paul, Görlitz, Germany — than you can shake a stick at.