Search - Camille Saint-Saens, Aram Khachaturian, Robert [Composer] Hunter :: High Fidelity Pipe Organ Favorites

Organ CD

Frank L. Lewis | Hermon, NY | 02/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Great transaction, Just what I was looking for. Find used CD's

as good as new, and the price is right."

A bit of a disappointment but still a real FIND!

theatre organ afficionado | spanaway, washington | 12/28/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a review of a CD featuring Theatrical Pipe Organ with Percussive Accompaniment, on a recent CD put out by Hit Thing Records- late 1950s recordings of some old symphonic warhorses such as "Ritual Fire Dance, Theme from Sheherezade, Polovtsian Dances, In a Persian Market, Stars Fell on Alabama, Waltz of the Flowers [and 12 others], played with gothic verve by the late Robert Hunter- d. 09/2001- aka "Georges Montalba", and with accompaniment by 2 percussionists under the direction of Mr. Hunter.

I am a collector of unusual pipe organ recordings, featuring organs with percussions or other rhythmic accompaniment- so when I read the "Hit Thing" [records] blurb about this particular CD as having "rhythmic accompaniment," I was willing to put up with the fact that it was [advertised as being] in monophonic sound which I normally loathe. So I bit, paid my $$, then put it on the box and had a listen, only to hear that not only was it in mono but that it was not even from an original master tape [back then, master tapes were routinely erased and reused, a biting shame!] but was apparently copied from 2 monophonic LPs with some surface noise supressed and buried underneath a cloud of stereophonic reverb- so I did some research and found out that the original recording was put out by Dick Miller of Somerset Records back in 1958- that year, was the first year that stereophonic LPs came on the market, so I figured that a geniune stereophonic LP of this stuff had to be floating around out there somewhere, so I scoured the Goodwill stores and other used record marts in the [seemingly vain] hope of finding a rare stereophonic specimen in good condition- Et Voilà! I found one April '06 in a Seattle Goodwill in an overcrowded record bin, one LP with a torn cover and the other LP intact, 2 separate albums, the the older 1957 disc ["High Fidelity Pipe Organ Favorites"] in mono but the 1958 disc {"A Stereo Fantasy in Pipe Organ & Percussion"] in glorious stereo! The discs themselves were in great condition considering the age and poor storage they'd suffered in the decades past- so I took 'em home, gave 'em a good bath, dropped needle in groove, and found despite a welter of crackle, that the sound underneath was undistorted and clear as a bell! so I ran 'em through a CEDAR Declicker [a miracle box] and made a CD dub, and that is what I listen to, having given the Hit Thing CD away.

Having said all that, the sound of the Hit Thing CD is OK to non-critical listeners - certainly listenable, just not all that it could have been. I still applaud Hit Thing for putting this utterly unique material out in the first place! It is a real treat to hear the Lorin Whitney Studio Pipe Organ with brilliant percussive accompaniment, in a performance for the ages- and I recommend this CD highly to pipe organ fans."