This is the second in a series of recordings focusing on the art of symphonic organ playing from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Evanston, Illinois. Stephen Tharp, known as one of America’s most active concert organists, performs some of the transcriptions for which he has become internationally famous. The centrepiece of the disc is Franz Liszt’s piano masterpiece, the Sonata in B Minor, here adapted by Tharp for the organ in an electrifyingly colourful performance. Also heard are transcriptions of Handel and Barber (with soprano Susan Lewis), Karg-Elert’s late Passacaglia and Fugue on B.A.C.H., and the Stanford hymn St. Patrick’s Breastplate. The booklet contains an article by Stephen Tharp on the recording sessions, essays on the music and Ernest Skinner, and many photos of the instrument.
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