Jonathan Ryan - A Cathedral's Voice: The Organ of the Cathedral of St. John Berchmans, Shreveport, Louisiana (2012)

Reviews James M. Reed in The Diapason, June, 2013:

Jonathan Ryan is one talented organist! Matched as he is on this CD with the new 54-rank Parkey organ in Shreveport's Catholic Cathedral (see The Diapason, January 2012) and some superb previously unrecorded music (as well as plenty of old favorites), this is much more interesting than the average run-of-the-mill organ demonstration disc.

Ryan opens with a lively and spirited performance of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D (BWV 532) in which we are quickly introduced to the performer's technical skill and the organ's varied musical palette. After three charming settings of Clarifica me Pater by William Byrd, the disc moves to the first of several most interesting musical selections—the first recording of the Three Liturgical Improvisations by the English church musician George Oldroyd (probably best known to most parish musicians as the composer of the Mass for the Quiet Hour), and although these performances here are divorced from the highly ritualistic Anglo-Catholic liturgical activity that they would almost certainly have been improvised to cover, they are played with tremendous feeling; the expressive, singing lines of Oldroyd's rich harmonic framework soar under Ryan's skilled fingers as he captures exactly the essence of this great emotive liturgical music. This is extremely beautiful, soulful music (particularly the first improvisation) and one can hopethat these three fine pieces will be heard more often in concerts, or perhaps as preludes to services of Choral Evensong.

After an extremely capable performance of Petr Eben's Studentenlieder (the fifth movement from Faust, adapted by the composer himself for the organ) the recording turns to the last three of Robert Schumann's Six Canonic Etudes (op. 56): No. 4 in A-flat, No. 5 in b, and No. 6 in B-flat. Ryan captures the lyrical quality of these lovely studies, working the romantic nature of the Parkey organ to extract well-controlled and appropriate crescendos and diminuendos. (It is regrettable that only the first three studies were included here, as all six performed by a player of Ryan's skill would make for a most compelling purchase.)

Three preludes on early American hymn tunes follow: Resignation by Zachary Wadsworth (receiving its first recording here, it is an interesting little piece with a constant sense of motion, and the well-known melody played on a soft solo reed stop), George Shearing's Come Away to the Skies, which begins with a delightful (almost) dance-like section, before transitioning into a somewhat comic theatre-organ style second half! The last of these three preludes is the lovely, gentle and meditative setting of Amazing Grace by Al Travis, organist of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

The final two pieces are, however, anything but meditative—quite popular works of the French organ repertoire, both pieces provide a glimpse into the extraordinary technical ability of this international (multiple) prize-winning organist: Fantaisie sur le Te Deum et Guirlandes Alleluiatiques of Charles Tournemire, an exciting, free-form fantasia based on the melody of the Te Deum laudamus; and finally the quite spectacular Placare Christe servulis (op. 38, no. 16) of Marcel Dupré, played here with all the great drama and excitement befitting such a cracking toccata—the Pontifical Trumpet may not compare to the great Cavaillé-Coll reeds on the organ of St. Sulpice, Paris, over which Dupré presided for many years, but put aside your purist tendencies, and allow yourself to get caught up in this incredible performance—Ryan will take your breath away.

Raven has produced another of their fine booklets, with magnificent photographs and plentiful information about the repertoire, instrument, and performer; the clarity of their recordings never fails to deliver the impression of being seated in the room listening to a live performance, and this recording is no exception.