CMQ Recommends…

CMQ, the quarterly publication by the Royal School of Church Music, awards the new and the old its highest *** rating, and recommends it as CD of the month:

THE NEW AND THE OLD
Isabelle Demers plays the 1995 Marcussen organ of Tonbridge School · Acis (for availability see www.acisproductions.com)

‘Isabelle Demers at the organ is a force of nature – a diminutive dynamo . . .’ So proclaim the sleeve notes of this highly engaging disc. Recorded on the wonderfully clear-sounding Marcussen organ of Tonbridge School, the programme springs into action with an energetic – but not rushed – performance of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D BWV 532. The articulation is smart and there are some cheeky changes of manual in the fugue that bring out the humour of this virtuosic piece. Isabelle Demer’s own arrangement of movements from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet are exciting, expressive and successful, exploiting the range of colours offered by the Tonbridge organ. Does the artist see something of herself in The Young Juliet with its contrasting impetuous and pensive moods? Reger’s Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme Op. 73 are profound and searching, and demonstrate the depth and breadth of Isabelle Demers’ musicianship. I should like to hear more of her playing.
Christopher Maxim

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 5th, 2010 at 3:50 pm. It is filed under front page, isabelle demers, the new and the old, l'ancien et le nouveau. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.