Herald AV Publications

HAVPCD154 – J. S. Bach and Aristide Cavaillé-Coll The Cavaille-Coll Organ, Saint Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough

Following his death in 1750, Bach’s music sank into oblivion for many years. Nevertheless and, as it were, behind the scenes, Bach continued to live. His son, Carl Philipp Emmanuel, was organ master to Johann Forkel who, in his turn, taught Johann Rinck. Rinck’s most famed pupil was Adolf Hesse, and it was Hesse who taught the Belgian organist Nicolas-Jacques Lemmens. All these organists guarded jealously what they regarded to be an authentic performance tradition. Cavaillé-Coll, in the course of his widespread travelling, heard Lemmens play on many occasions, and as a result, in 1852, arranged for him to perform publicly, before a highly distinguished audience, upon the new organ which he had installed in the Church of St-Vincent-de-Paul in Paris. Upon Cavaillé-Coll himself the playing of Lemmens and his interpretation of the works of Bach produced a profound impression.

HAVPCD148 – Gregorian Chant: Like the Sun in his Orb 13th-century chant from Salisbury Cathedral

‘The Church of Salisbury shines like the sun in his orb among the Churches of the whole world in its divine services and those who minister in it,’ wrote Bishop Giles de Bridport in 1256. Indeed the so-called Rite of Sarum – ‘Sarum’ being a misreading of the common Latin abbreviation for ‘Sarisburia’ or ‘Salisbury’ – was a rite of great magnificence, justly admired well beyond the confines of the Cathedral that gave it its name. It is in fact a local medieval version of the Roman Rite, but a particularly splendid one.

HAVPCD152 – Music for Clarinet and Piano

A collection of 20th-century works for clarinet and piano, which demonstrate the varied range and characteristic qualities of this most expressive woodwind instrument.