Search - Sabin Levi :: Organ Mosaic

The practice of musical borrowing (transcribing) is as old as the organ itself: Embellished arrangements of vocal music figure prominently in our earliest manuscripts; Bach himself created masterful transcriptions of Italianate concert; during the French Revolution, a precious few organs were saved from the torch by quick-thinking organists who appeased angry Parisian mobs with spirited arrangements of favorite airs. The practice peaked during the early 20th century, when transcriptions were the defining feature of organ concerts that drew cheering crowds of thousands. With the present disc, Sabin Levi brings us a refreshing and novel set of transcriptions. In this selection we have here a program of music from the early 20th century penned by composers who showed little to no interest in the organ at all. This CD invites us to muse over a wealth of what-ifs, What if Prokofiev had written for the organ? Moreover, Dr. Levi performs on one of the finest fruits of the reforms seen in modern organ building: Hellmuth Wolff's unparalleled op. 40 at the University of Kansas. Here is a welcome idea indeed! Dr. Levi proves admirably that transcriptions (scorned by some as decadent and shameful) and organs aspiring to the highest in classical ideals (decried by others as puritanical and inflexible) need not be strangers at all. Dr. Robert Horton Dordt College