Michael Blake & Surendran Reddy
Complete Organ Works
Organ music from Africa unlike anything you’ve heard
This CD brings together the complete organ music of two South African-born composers, both of whom employ elements of indigenous, traditional South African music in their pieces, albeit in very different ways. Blake’s music is delicate, colourful, sometimes intellectual, sometimes experimental. Reddy is exuberant, jazzy, inspired by everything from world music to South African township jazz. Putting the two composers’ music next to each other therefore shows two completely different perspectives on “Africa” in organ music. It also, in Michael Blake’s words, “encompasses a lot of the spirit of post-liberation South Africa”. The 24-page illustrated booklet contains comprehensive notes by the performer on both composers and their music, and details of the outstanding instrument.
More Info & BuyAlec Rowley Organ Works
Rediscover an English master
This two-CD set is the most extensive recording project ever devoted solely to the music of Alec Rowley (1892-1958). It includes a selection of works that are sure to surprise even those familiar with his music, played on the organ of Albion Church, Ashton-u-Lyne, a four-manual instrument by T. C. Lewis of 1895 which remains tonally unchanged. With stunning photos of the organ, the twenty-page booklet includes details on the instrument and notes by the performer on the composer and the music.
Herman Jordaan is a sensitive interpreter and well able to handle the music's requirements in terms of registration and use of the instrument. I am now inspired to go back to Rowley … Highly recommended.
Organists’ Review
More Info & BuyAfrika Hymnus
The complete Afrika Hymnus cycle by Stefans Grové
The first complete recording of the tripartite Afrika Hymnus by the distinguished South African composer Stefans Grové (1922-2014). With extensive notes by the performer, a student of Grové.
Herman Jordaan makes vivid and persuasive use of St Albans Cathedral’s Harrison & Harrison organ in a valuable addition to the catalogue.
Choir & Organ
Herman Jordaan … delivers the music with lucidity, sensitivity, and commitment; and the St Albans organ has the clarity of speech and variety of timbre that it demands. A sometimes challenging but welcome discovery.
Organists’ Review
More Info & BuyGreat European Organs No. 72
Herman Jordaan plays the Harrison & Harrison Organ
of St Albans Cathedral
Works by Temmingh, Rousseau, Litaize, Wijnand van Klaveren, Ritter, Sumsion, Van den Horst, Rowley, and Hailstork.
Herman Jordaan, the winner of numerous competition prizes, is clearly a rising star in the organ world. Here he presents a daunting programme with brilliant polish and great artistic aplomb.
The American Organist