Reviewed by Dave Massey

I must confess at this point that I have never been able to stand organ music - it gives me the same sense of musical satisfaction as standing at the quayside of Portsmouth harbour on New Year's Eve (hearing all the ships' foghorns going off). So, bracing myself for the worst and desperately trying to be objective I pressed play and was (to my own disbelief) well impressed. As Michael Howard is as technically capable as any other organist I've heard, I must attribute most of my pleasure in listening to this disc to the composer (Cesar Franck) - how he wrote such sensitive music for an instrument like the organ I'll never know. Another contributing factor though was the French Cavaille-Coll organ of St Michael's Abbey in Farnborough, with it's sweet tone and wide variety of quite listenable-to sound. Alright? Not arf. . .

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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