Leo Sowerby: Comes Autumn Time
Leo Sowerby: Requiescat in Pace
Leo Sowerby: Fantasy for Flute Stops
Richard Purvis: Greensleeves
Richard Purvis: Gwalshmai *
Daniel E. Gawthrop: Three Floral Preludes *
- Leucanthemum Vulgare
- Zehenspitzen Durch die Tulpen
- La Rose Jaune
S. Andrew Lloyd: Herzlich tut mich verlangen *
Daniel E. Gawthrop: Symphony No. 3 *
- Intrada
- Capriccio
- Largo
- Finale

* Première Recordings

There are many very pleasant surprises on this new Raven recording, most of them offered here in their initial recording, and presented with great insight and perspicacity by organist David Pickering, who champions new music and specializes in organ music by American composers, and is Assistant Professor of Music and Chair of the Keyboard Division at Kansas State University.

For starters, Gwalshmai, based on the text "King of Glory, King of Peace", by Richard Purvis (1913-1994) will make you feel like marching up and down your living room waving banners. Its driving, forward momentum, slowly piling on various reed and horn stops, echoing each other and all coming together in solidarity at the end, all sounds like a glorious and victorious fanfare. It also highlights some of this organ's unique stops, like the French Horn. At the other end of the spectrum lies the beautiful Largo from the Symphony No. 3 by Daniel E. Gawthrop (b. 1949), with a soaring flute melody floating over a lush support of Gamba Celeste, or Vox Humana and Strings. As fine an example of how a massive pipe organ can sound so warm and gentle. Leo Sowerby's Fantasy for Flute Stops will make you believe you're walking through a large aviary filled with all manners of birds. The Leucanthemum Vulgare and La Rose Jaune (Yellow Rose of Texas), also by Daniel E. Gawthrop, are tongue-in-cheek toccatas written and executed with flair, ingenuity and panache, in which while the hands rhapsodize, the mighty pedals proclaim the tune. And S. Andrew Lloyd's Herzlich tut mich verlangen is a monumental piece whose final hair-raising moments will leave you agape in awe.

The Opus 61 Quimby Pipe Organ in the Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church, Richardson, Texas, built in 2005, is a 57 rank instrument but sounds much bigger. What impresses me the most is the variety of sounds and colors in can easily generate. My one and only trivial niggle lies not with the instrument but rather with the room it sits in, which is a bit short on resonance. But the inspired music, commited playing, and impressive organ sound quickly camouflage this insignificant blemish. So if you're looking for "new" music anchored deep in tradition, this will do it.