“A recording worthily celebrating the rebirth of this impressive organ”
— Organists' Review
Resounding Aftershocks
Martin Setchell plays the restored Rieger organ of Christchurch Town Hall
Recorded following the restoration of the Christchurch Town Hall and its magnificent Rieger organ, Resounding Aftershocks celebrates the return of one of New Zealand’s finest concert organs. Martin’s wide-ranging programme showcases the instrument’s colour, power and versatility, while also linking its new life with its past.
Track Listing
- Celebration ~ Mons Leidvin Takle (b.1942)
- Grand Choeur in D (alla Handel) ~ Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
- Prelude in G BWV 541 ~ J.S.Bach (1685-1750)
- A Chloris ~ Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
- El dia de Fiesta ~ Noël Goemanne (1926-2010)
- Scherzo ~ Enrico Bossi (1861-1925)
- Toccata in A ~ Bonaventura Somma (1893-1960)
- Romance from Symphony IV ~ Louis Vierne (1879-1937)
- Cats at Play ~ Denis Bédard (b.1950)
- Toccata in D ~ Marcel Lanquetuit (1894-1985)
- Variations & Fugue on God Save the King ~ Max Reger (1873-1916)
- Caribbean Dance ~ Madeleine Dring (1923-1977)
- Andante in F ~ Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély (1817-1869)
- Toccata in F * ~ Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)
All tracks except * were recorded in Christchurch Town Hall, 26-27 January 2019.
* Original recording September 1997, from Let the pealing organ blow! (MANU 1539). By kind permisison of Ode Records.
Martin writes:
"This was the opening track of my first CD on the Rieger when it was installed in 1997. It is included here to ‘link hands’ with the past as the ‘pealing organ blows’ again and begins a new chapter in its life."
Prices & Ordering
Secure payment via PayPal • Pay by PayPal, credit or debit card
Within New Zealand
Urban delivery: NZD $25 (includes $8 postage)
Rural delivery: NZD $25 (includes $11 postage)
Australia
UK & Ireland
£10
USA & Canada
Europe
There's an "animated" quality to his playing that breathes life into the music and well projects each individual piece's character, be it power and vitality or tender dolefulness. Highly recommended to any pipe organ fans, especially for its unusual and varied assortment of pieces."
Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel, September 2019
Martin Setchell’s long-established brilliance and elan as a performer is here demonstrated to the utmost thanks to the skills and expertise of the disc’s sound engineer Mike Clayton, capturing the occasion most resplendently.
Middle-C, reviewed by Peter Mechen, 29/11/2020 - Read the full review here
Real artistry . . . it's fun listening to such splendid playing, meticulous and flawless . . .
— Bruce Steele, Organ Australia, Winter 2014
Cardboard Cathedral Organ Capers
Martin Setchell plays the restored Rieger organ of Christchurch Town Hall
The Christchurch Transitional Cathedral, more commonly known as the Cardboard Cathedral, was built in 2013 in response to the need for a temporary building when the original Anglican Cathedral in Cathedral Square was badly damaged in a series of devastating earthquakes from 2010 to 2012. Designed by the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, it is built mostly of cardboard tubes, timber and structural steel, with a concrete floor. Shipping containers provide side offices. The north-end triangular window design includes 49 1.2 metre-tall panels and incorporates images from the ChristChurch Cathedral's original rose window. The Rodgers Infinity 484 digital organ was installed in 2013, and this is the first CD to be made on the organ of this series in New Zealand.
Track Listing
- Fanfare for the Common Man ~ Aaron Copland (arr. Setchell)
- Now rejoice together BWV 734 ~ J. S. Bach
- Largo from Concerto No 5 BWV 1056 ~ Bach (arr. Setchell)
- Now thank we all our God BWV 79 ~ Bach (arr. Setchell)
- Sicilienne, Gabriel ~ Fauré (arr. Setchell)
- Prelude to the Te Deum ~ Marc-Antoine Charpentier
- Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy ~ Tchaikovsky
- A Trumpet Menuet ~ Alfred Hollins
- Canon in B minor Op 56/5 ~ Robert Schumann
- Largo from the 'New World' Symphony ~ Anton Dvorak (arr. Setchell)
- Handel in the Strand ~ Percy Grainger (arr. Stockmeyer)
- Fountain Reverie ~ Percy Fletcher
- 'Blues' Toccata ~ Mons Leidvin Takle
- Penguins' Playtime ~ Nigel Ogden
- Bells across the Meadows ~ Albert Ketelbey (arr. Sellars/Setchell)
- Radetsky March ~ Johann Strauss (arr. Setchell)
- The Syncopated Clock ~ Leroy Anderson (arr. Setchell)
- Wedding March Extraordinaire ~ Martin Setchell
Prices & Ordering
Secure payment via PayPal • Pay by PayPal, credit or debit card
Within New Zealand
(includes $8 postage)
(includes $11 postage)
Australia
UK & Ireland
GBP £8
USA & Canada
USD $12
Europe
EUR €9.00
A side note on the recording:
Making a CD in a public space is a challenge that organists are all too familiar with; but trying to record sound tracks in what amounts to a gargantuan building site must be right up there with some of the most patience-demanding tasks ever.
For a week beforehand we arrived at 5am in the so-called lull between night-work diggers, scrapers, lifters, loaders, crushers, concrete mixers, tractors heavy haulage vehicles and every other large mechanical beast known to man - and before the arrival of the morning's shift of day workers. A couple of hours each morning provided enough peace to lay down the 18 tracks. The complete recording with sound engineer Mike Clayton was a marathon session that lasted through the final night. The Cardboard Cathedral polycarbon roof with the timber-lined tubes is waterproof but not soundproof; in fact, not even enough to stifle the sound of people talking outside. With a set of traffic lights on the One Way road system a mere dozen or so steps away from the front door of the cathedral, it was a matter of timing the recordings between light changes and the constant flow of vehicles all determinedly doing their bit for the rebuild of Christchurch. But it's still a happy thought that this CD is a small part of that rebuild ~ and indeed a very brave New World.
A MUST-have for organ lovers! Martin Setchell has done some spectacular works for organ, but this album is incomparable. I believe the Rodgers Infinity has opened up an untapped world for Martin, and he has attacked it with superb finesse and brilliant creativity. In my opinion, this is his best work ever!"
Ric Corless, Amazon review, July 2014
Martin Setchell always comes to the party with creative CD titles and brilliant programming: a hallmark of his many CD projects. Martin makes full use of the built-in velocity sensitivity with subtle dynamic inflections which are stunning in such works as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Fauré's Sicilienne
Roy Tankersley, OrgaNZ news (NZ), May 2014
A piece with a difference
Martin's Wedding March Extraordinaire, which marries several different tunes into the more conventional Wager and Mendelssohn marches typically chosen by brides.
Sonatina for Trumpet and Organ
Finale from Sonatina for Organ and Trumpet by Hans Uwe Hielscher, recorded live in the Christchurch Town Hall
Sortie in Eb by Lefébure-Wély
One of the organ world's great fun pieces, the Sortie in Eb by Lefébure-Wély, Footage also shows interior pipe work, including the Swell and pedal divisions of the organ.
