Does anyone else out there just close their eyes, listen, feel, experience, weep, laugh, smile, get chills, hold their breath, hum along, stand up and conduct the "orchestra" like I do?! I hear music like most people read books! Every nuance, every mood, every everything! Maybe this is strange, but I'm 60 y/o now and don't plan on changing anything! Just thought I'd ask... SPECTACULARLY MOVING PIECE AND PERFORMANCE, BTW!!!
Superb arrangement and performance (and instrument). First time in 50 years as an organist and organ music devotee I've ever heard such a transcription actually realise the organ's true potential in exactly reproducing and even outshining an original orchestral work, let alone one of such scope and complexity. Brilliant and fluid use of registration, dynamics, tempi and sheer virtuosity (including the astonishing legato thumb solos!) to recreate faithfully all the colour, mood and excitement of the Tannhauser overture - I could listen to the whole Wagner canon thus accompanied. An utterly thrilling discovery, thank you.
+ Peter Barber, I agree with everything you have said. I don't like transcriptions normally for the reasons you have stated, but I think this is the best I have heard especially of this work.
And it seemed all to be on one page of music. I didn't see him turning the pages nor anybody doing it for him. Maybe that what all the atmoshere shots were for. But Bravo. Well played. And who would have thought that Rochdale had such an organ.
What a Tour de force Jonathan ! Absolutely fantastically played. Thank you for that. This video shows the great skill an organist has to show in order to get all the notes in! Left left thumb doing the main tune on the great while the rest of the left had is accompanying on the swell and the right hand doing cartwheels on the choir! Ladies and Gentlemen it don't get much better than this! And a lovely instrument getting on in age now but still in fine fettle, thanks to dedicated organ builders and well done to Rochdale council for still paying for the upkeep of this fine instrument.
I think Wagner is very proud and lucky to hear this perfect transscription and interpretation of his masterpiece using such very fine sounding majestic instrument. This is absolutely royal - King Ludwig ll of Bavaria could enjoy this too! Bravo, Bravo, Bravo.
I have no words to express the enjoyment I had listening - and watching - to this masterpiece. I adored the Frantz Liszt piano version, but this organ arrangement is simply fabulous. Moments of pleasure.
If you don't cry hearing this, you don't have a soul. Tannhauser overture always touch my heart and so does the organ which is the best instrument ever built. I just wish I could hear it live before I die.
E anche questa sera mi sono goduta questa superba esibizione del maestro Scott con questo brano che mi emoziona ogni volta che lo riascolto per la sua pienezza di suoni e la potenza espressiva .
Soltanto un organista geniale, quale è Jonathan, può eseguire una trascrizione del genere!!! Semplicemente geniale!!! Semplicemente inarrivabile!!! Semplicemente unico ... Jonathan Scott!!! Chapeau!!!
Esta mesma obra foi executada pelo Jonathan na imensa e linda Catedral de Chester. A performance e o vídeo também ficaram maravilhosos e fazem parte de um concerto online. É um dos meus vídeos favoritos!
Outstanding re-creation of a "soul feuer-werk" - incredibly challenging to play, yet "achieved is the glorious work!" Congratulations to this fine organist!
Magnificient! fantastic! Congrats to virtuoso organist! It's nearly impossible to perform...Registration, performance, using of swell, fingering, dynamics...ALL EXCELLENT!!!
That was breathtaking, even listening on the computer. Some of the finest musicianship I have ever seen, and a magnificent interpretation of the piece. And what a transcription!
Cher Jonathan, merci pour ce bel arrangement pour orgue de cette oeuvre si connue par ailleurs. Même commentaire que pour votre 3eme symphonie de St Saens, arrangée 100% orgue ; là encore, j'aime beaucoup, félicitations !
Absolutely brilliant. I've now spent two straight hours playing and replaying this performance. As a beginner organist myself, I'm intimidated by the technical skills required to perform a piece like this.
Such coordination of the feet and hands. Talk about patting yourself on the head and rubbing your tummy at the same time! Im surprised he isnt using his nose to play a few keys at the same time. Brilliant performance. I couldnt have done better myself. That old fossil of an organ looks and sounds great too. Many happy returns of the day.Thanks.
I am lost for words. Jonathan you are amazing, this is one of my all time favorites and I can tell you definately the best rendition I have heard to date. Thank you so much, you made my day, although my face is now wet with tears!!!! WOW again!!!
Excellent performance. I am a Church organist now 83 years of age, I can no longer perform as I once did but I remember how it felt to have good control. Thank you
ABSOLUTELY GLORIOUS!!! Makes me wish I was an organist and play these lovely works! I like playing such things on my headset at FULL BLAST just to savor each note like a fine gourmet meal! Well done, Maestro! BRAVO!
+robert shaw I was raised listening to this stuff when I was a kid. My dad played 1st violin for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Robert Shaw, Maestro. ;-) I'd like to hear this work transposed onto rock guitar...that might be interesting to hear. Besides, Bach, Wagner, Vivaldi, etc. were considered the heavy metal musicians and virtuosi of their day
COngrats for your wonderful participation in Classics. People today should listen to more of it. BUT - If you blast your eardrums, you will end up not being able to hear the music for the screaming of tinitus. That for you and me would be a disaster.
Nice - Won't do you any good when you wreck your ability to hear high frequency. or worse, drive you to early deafness. I would n't be so quick to brag about hurting my body if I were you.
My eyes moistened and throat tightened from the resplendent majesty of your arrangement. You are clearly an inspired, gifted musician! I wish I could afford to ship you over here to show your talent locally!
You are one of the best I have heard. I have attended hundreds of concerts in my 69 years. Have known many personally as well. Great to know there are those who can still "do it right."
The organ is a magnificent instrument, and a skilled organist like J S can make it whisper, sing, bellow and roar. This is magnificent. We need many more organists to master these wonderful instruments!!
A beautiful job of expressing this music! Even before addressing the technical demands of the arrangement, we must be in awe of how such a piece needs to be dramatic and enthused. And this instrument is an impressive example of how a medium-large organ can stand in well for an orchestra without the excessive excess we see in too many modern halls.
MAESTOSO.QUESTO STUMENTO è VERAMENTE IL PIù DIFFICILE E IL PIù FATICOSO DA SUONARE ,TI PRENDE TUTTO IL CORPO E DOPO UNA ESEQUZIONE SIMILE SEI VERAMENTE STREMATO.VORREI CHE I GIOVANI ASCOLTASSERO QUESTE PERFORMACE ANZICHE STORDIRSI CON ANFETAMINE.GRAZIE JONATHAN……….
This is a fantastic trans -cription. Th use of the manuals not to talk about his thumb- work! A thousand Bravos to this Master of the Queen of the musical instruments!
I think Edwin H. Lemare would be delighted to hear his masterful transcription played so well. Playing transcriptions is an art in itself...as this performance amply illustrates.
This is not spectacular feat - All Old School organists could do this without trouble. This skill is required is you are going to play any sort of realistic transcription. But it should also be a standard part of the organists skill. Both Scott brothers have the training, experience and skill to accomplish this with no inconvenience at all.
Wagner's Overture to Tannhauser is my one piece of music above all others. And, of course, that is saying a great deal. And then, to hear it played on the King of Instruments...
Absolutely amazing , mesmerizing , Fantastic , what a wonderful Musician Jonathan Scott is ---This is the most majestic performance of TANNHUSER I have ever heard or witnessed
@Harold Slick Don't conflict him with the tyrant. At the time of his writings he wasn't wrong, in the same way the chinese wasn't wrong 1000 years ago when they tried to find other developed civilizations. One states a fact of the time, the other wishes people and cultures deaths because they weren't the same as his.
My step-father was an organist in America and he played this song as the music minister often of the church we attended. It was always the postlude for the service. Everyone loved it. It gives me chills to this day, 50+ years later. Thank you Mr. Scott. Absolutely magnificent!
Given this I do not know what do say, I have no words to express what I feel!!!! I can only say that I see and hear a million times or more!!!!! Thank you very much Jonathan!!!
What I particularly appreciate about Jonathan Scott's performances of transcriptions, including the ones he arranges himself, is that you could truly believe the piece was written for the organ in the first place. There is nuance in the performance that could be so easily lost in adding and subtracting ranks of pipes. Crescendos and diminuendo are effected brilliantly. Bravo.
