In a previous review, I commented extensively on the organ phenomenon Wayne Marshall; rather than repeating myself, readers may find it helpful to look here: Dupré: Passion Symphony - Marshall.

This time, the multi-functional artist sits at the mighty console of a Klais organ at the National Forum of Music in the Polish city of Wroclaw. Both buildings are creations of modern organ and concert hall design. I cannot comment on the artistic quality of the National Forum, other than what transpires looking at the pictures in the booklet, but I can comment on the organ-organist combination. And it’s a rare privilege!

Three notorious Frenchmen on the programme, introduced by the contemporary Canadian composer, Andrew Ager, together making up an interesting selection of old and new, familiar and less so. Qualifying it as ‘something for everyone’ sounds a bit banal, but there is some truth in it. And why not? One can pick ‘n choose, as I suppose many do anyway.

Reading the programme, some oddities are apparent. Track 7 should be track 8, and so on. Furthermore, track (new) 11 is not available in multi-channel due to disc capacity limits. Finally, Variations on Bach’s Toccata and Fugue, serving as a tasty ‘after dinner’, were not recorded in Wroclaw but at another location: L’Église Notre-Dame in Alpe d’Huez, France.

Before listening, a word of warning seems justified. The opening piece is as modern as the organ and the Hall, putting the impressive sound of this powerhouse right in your listening area. It took me by surprise, and I wondered how it fitted into “The Briton Rhapsodies”, the title of this latest Base2 Music release. I can think of two reasons to put it first. A personal one: Ager's Toccata and Fugue is one of Wayne's favourites. Secondly, it demonstrates the technical capabilities of the 2020 Klais organ as well as those of the artist. Organ players among the readership will no doubt acknowledge the hurdles an organist must master to render this short piece without any unwanted hiccups. The tone is set.

For the benefit of all, a few words about the Canadian composer Andrew Ager (b. 1962), whom most of us are probably not so familiar with. His rising star is better known in North America than in my part of the world. Nonetheless, and here is, with a bit of fantasy, the link with the gist of the programme: his popularity was helped by a series of organ works published in France, like this one. The first part of his Toccata et Fugue, Op. 30, No. 1, and I quote here from concert notes from a recent performance in Los Angeles: “concentrates on left-and-right hand coordination with compound rhythms and shifting meters. The fugue begins in starkly simple C major, but gradually begins subtly fudging the conventional rules of both fugue and tonality.” Hefty stuff for ear and mind, and admiration for the crafting and performing artistic spirit.

From here on, the listener becomes part of Wayne’s trip through the delicacies of French organ music. Saint-Saëns’ “Trois Rhapsodies sur des cantiques Bretons” were written in 1866 and dedicated to his friend Fauré, with whom he visited Brittany. With this, we get to know other aspects of this multifaceted concert organ (full details in the booklet). His unhurried, stylish playing in the first rhapsody makes the audience fall in love with that part of France, shifting to the proud, prodigy-like character of its population in the second, and their playfulness in the third. This is a major work and, not least in Wayne’s reading, a most welcome addition to the SACD catalogue. Do read all about it in the liner notes of Gregg Wager.

With Franck, we enter the hit list of most organists. However, his famous Chorale No. 1 is performed here in a version from the American organist Virgil Fox, lending it symphonic grandeur, which this Klais organ is so eminently apt for. Similarly, the “Suite Gothique” from the other great French organ composer, Léon Boëllmann, comes through as potent as though I was listening to one of the French Cavaillé-Coll organs.

The proof that Wayne Marshall is equally at home at the keyboard of a concert grand is demonstrated by including, by way of interlude, Rachmaninoff’s famous Prelude in C sharp. It concludes the recorded programme in Wroclaw, Poland, opening the door to Wayne at the organ in Alpe d’Huez, France, in his Improvisations & Variations on Bach’s core composition “Toccata and Fugue in D minor”, where he goes all out, confirming his stature as one of the great organ players of our time.

There is no escape from the fact that Jake Purches, the solo manager of Base2 Music, must now be considered one of the prime, if not the ‘primiest’, organ music providers at the sharp end of hi-res recording.

My only regret: The omission of the Berceuse from Dupré’s “Suite Bretonne” in the 5.1 surround version. No problem for stereo-only listeners, though.

Blangy-le-Château, Normandy, France.

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