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Details
Format: Digital Audio CD
Label: PRO ORGANO
Catalog Number: CD 7261
Length: 73’ 48”
Tracks: 9
Organ: Fisk-Rosales
Venue: Rice University, Houston, Texas USA
Recorded: 03/01/2013
Released: 05/17/2013
Producer: Frederick Hohman
Notes Author: Daryl Robinson
Notes Language: English
Graphics Format: 12pp book, traycard, jewel box
UPC #: 636077726125
This album and its tracks are available digitally from the following streaming and download sources:
APPLE MUSIC
NAXOS MUSIC LIBRARY
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“Here’s a fine solo debut on disc by the young American Daryl Robinson, a double-prize winner at the 2012 American Guild of Organists’ National Young Artists Competition. His playing is characterised by a driving muscular poetry underpinned by nimble technique and nuanced sense of style. There’s a marvelously controlled flamboyance to Liszt’s combustible BACH Prelude & Fugue, while Cochereau’s chiaroscuro Scherzo symphonique is realised with painterly detail. Dandrieu’s gorgeous Offertoire pour le jour de Pâques: O filii et filiae glows with filigreed finesse; Karg-Elert’s Harmonies du soir is suitably twilit and mysterious. Add in secure readings of Franck, Bach, Heiller, and David Ashley White, and Daryl Robinson set his stall out with winning aplomb.”
Michael Quinn, Choir and Organ Magazine, March/April 2014
“Instructions on how to play this CD: 1) Close all your windows and doors. 2) Check your house for structural issues. 3) Alert local seismologists about your plans. 4) Crank up the volume and gasp in amazement at organist Daryl Robinson’s flawless technique and solid musicianship, and bask in this magnificent instrument’s power. 5) Go around your house and check all the windows for cracks. 6) Look outside to see if your neighbours have moved away.The disc opens with the impressive Scherzo symphonique by Pierre Cochereau, one of those rare pieces that imposes severe demands on the performer’s technique and stamina, whilst maintaining an extremely musical momentum and dénouement. It also brings out a pipe organ’s character by alternating between full stops to only one or two. It’s easy to understand why Daryl Robinson won first prize in the 2012 National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance when you hear his thrilling reading of this work of gargantuan proportions. And at the other end of the sonic spectrum lies Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s Harmonies du soir which highlights this versatile instrument’s gentler side. I’ve heard thousands of recordings in my life, and very rarely have I heard anything as beautiful as the quality of sound this pipe organ produces on the soft, goosebump inducing, final chord of this work. The Tanz-Toccata again allows you to marvel at Robinson’s agilities, while the piece by Jean-François Dandrieu brings out his attention to style and period performance. And if you thought that you had heard this organ’s full force in the Cochereau, wait ’til you hear the “monster” exposed during the Prelude and Fugue on BACH by Franz Liszt. The final chords alone will make you glad to be alive. The recording engineers at Pro Organo have very well captured this organ’s power as well as the space it occupies. With impressive stops including a 32′ Contre Bombarde, this instrument moves great volumes of air. Enjoy! Hope you’re on good terms with your neighbours.”
Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel, February 2014
Praised for his innovative programming, compelling performances, and unique depth of interpretative skill, Daryl Robinson has earned critical acclaim as both solo and collaborative artist. Described as a performer with “…a driving muscular poetry underpinned by nimble technique and nuanced sense of style…” by London-based Choir and Organ, Daryl was winner of both First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2012 American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition. At the age of thirty, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Organ for Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, beginning Fall of 2015.
Daryl has appeared as a featured artist at notable venues including The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC; Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Shanghai, China; Cathédral Saint-Pierre, Poitiers, France; Spreckels Organ Pavilion, San Diego, California; and Lagerquist Hall at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington. His career as a collaborative musician has included four years as Collaborative Keyboard Artist for the Moores School Concert Chorale at The University of Houston and professional engagements with the Grammy-nominated Ars Lyrica Houston, The Houston Symphony, Mercury Baroque, The Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival Orchestra, and as Accompanist for the internationally-acclaimed Houston Chamber Choir.
Active as a church musician from the age of fourteen, Daryl served for twelve years as Organist and Artist-in-Residence for South Main Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, where he was instrumental in guiding the congregation in the selection and fundraising of a new pipe organ. Committed to educating about the pipe organ itself, organ music, and commissioning new music, he has commissioned from three of the most-gifted and recognized living composers: David Ashley White (Introduction, Theme, and Variations: ‘Come Pure Hearts’, 2012), David Briggs (Concert Variations on ‘Nicaea’, 2014), and George Baker (Afro-Cuban Rumba for Organ and Latin Percussion, commission for the 2016 American Guild of Organists National Convention in Houston).
A native of Houston, Daryl holds a Master of Music from The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and a Bachelor of Music from The Moores School of Music at The University of Houston, studying respectively with Ken Cowan and Robert Bates. Additionally, he has studied organ with David Higgs, harpsichord with Matthew Dirst, and choral conducting with Betsy Cook Weber.
Daryl’s debut solo album, Sempre Organo, was released in 2013 on the ProOrgano Records label and quickly garnered rave reviews in the United States, Canada, France, and England. Selections from the disc have been heard on nationally syndicated radio programs, including Pipedreams® and With Heart and Voice. Collaborative performances may be heard on the 2013 Albany Records release, As you set out for Ithaka: Music of David Ashley White. Daryl is represented by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.
01 • Scherzo symphonique • Pierre Cochereau, trans. Jeremy Filsell • 7’39”
02 • Harmonies du soir, Op 72 No 1 • Sigfrid Karg-Elert • 5’37”
03 • Tanz-Toccata • Anton Heiller • 5’8″
04 • Deuxième Choral en si mineur, M. 39 • César Franck • 14’33”
05 • Come, Pure Hearts: Introduction, Theme, and Variations • David Ashley White • 10′
06 • Offertoire pour le Jour de Pâques: O filii et filiae • Jean-François Dandrieu • 7’57”
07 • Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr’, BWV 676 • Johann Sebastian Bach • 5’5″
08 • Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott, BWV 680 • Johann Sebastian Bach • 3’53”
09 • Präludium und Fuge über den Namen BACH, S. 260 • Franz Liszt • 13’54”
