Kansas City Saint-Saëns a “Definitive Version”

“…a disc for the most demanding audiophile and for the most discerning music lover, not that the two are mutually exclusive. … This, I believe, is the most astonishingly realistic and most stunningly awesome recording I’ve ever heard, which is why I said above that it was a disc for the most demanding audiophile. The sonic fidelity and presence are amazing, and this isn’t even an SACD, folks. … But enough about the recording, for it wouldn’t matter much if the performance wasn’t equally fantastic, and it is, which is why I also said above that this is equally a recording for the most discerning music lover. … Jan Kraybill joins the Kansas City Orchestra to play the organ part on the magnificent Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant Organ, Opus 3875, an instrument of four manuals plus pedal, 79 stops, 102 ranks, and 5,548 pipes. Kraybill uses the resources at her command discreetly and with understanding and respect for the sonorities that would have been familiar to Saint-Saëns on a Cavaillé-Coll organ of his time. The blend and balance between orchestra and organ are perfect, but lest you’re worried about it, I can offer assurance that you won’t deprived of the wow factor at the organ’s big moment at the beginning of the last movement. Stern’s reading of the score strikes me as ideal. … Rarely are there such concurrences of phenomenal performances and phenomenal recordings. … After this I cannot imagine ever needing or wanting another recording of Saint-Saëns’s “Organ” Symphony. This must now be regarded as the definitive version, and although it’s a late entry, I find myself having to bump something off my already “chosen five” to in include it on my 2015 Want List in the current issue.” —Jerry Dubins, Fanfare Magazine

Labels: Jan Kraybill, Kansas City Symphony, KCSaintSaens, Organ, Saint-Saens