Here is another lovely CD, for the most part, from St. Paul’s Parish, yet with a bizarre turn toward the end. The program commences in fine style with a robust setting by organist/conductor Jeffrey Smith of the hymn tune “St. Helen” for full choir and organ, using the text “Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour”. This is followed by two movements of a romantic Josef Rheinberger organ sonata and a mix of choral numbers and solo organ pieces, the latter including a delightful set of variations on “O filii et filiae” by Baroque French composer Jean Dandrieu. The organ music is played with great finesse and care and is registered with imagination and discretion. The choral music fares well, too, notably A Song of Peace by Charles Stanford, who has ingeniously worked in a bit of the familiar Advent carol “Veni Emmnauel”. This little gem is sung wonderfully by Saint Paul’s Boys Choir, which surely must be the best organization of its sort on this side of the Atlantic. The purity of the boys’ voices is a revelation, a sound perfectly captured in the splendid recording.
But then, near the end of the program comes the wrong-headed decision to include a 15-minute transcription of the lovely adagio movement of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony. I have nothing against transcriptions, but this one is inept and awful and doesn’t work at all. Nor does it fit into the rest of the program. This is a pity, because Frederick Hohman has produced one of his best sounding recordings from this location. You’ll be happy for your player’s CD programming capability. Use it, skip the Rachmaninov, and enjoy the other parts of the otherwise satisfying program, realizing that the lower performance rating has almost everything to do with the transcription.
