This month we have been very pleased to receive some excellent reviews in the classical music press. Gramophone Magazine, the UK’s top classical music magazine, reviewed our Art of Fugue DVD / CD set as follows:
‘The finest recording of the Art of Fugue, irrespective of instrument or media.’
They went on to describe Desert Fugue, the documentary included on the DVD, as ‘tremendously illuminating and magnificently produced’.
Choir and Organ magazine also carried a review, in which they summed up the whole project:
‘Magnificent in its uncompromising approach, this remarkable production should be a set text for all university courses for performers and academics alike. Lay people and Bach aficionados (with or without their own copy of the score) are certain to gain just as much pleasure and understanding of this monumental work from this endlessly absorbing set.’
We are very grateful for such glowing reviews, and for the enthusiastic endorsement of our format of combining a full recording of the work with documentaries about it.
Reviews for the Elusive English Organ and Virtuoso! Music for Organ are forthcoming – we will publish them as soon as we have them. In the meantime, Daniel Moult, the organist for both of these productions, is the subject of a feature in the current edition of Classical Music Magazine.
For those living in and around London, Dan will be showing the film The Elusive English Organ and giving a recital at St Peter’s, Vauxhall, on Tuesday July 6th at 7.30pm. Entry is free. Our DVDs will be on sale.
The church’s address is: 310 Kennington Lane, London, SE11 5HY
Our friend the harpsichord builder and keyboardist Colin Booth will also be presenting a concert of Elizabethan virginal music at this church the week before on Tuesday June 29th at 7.30pm. Entry is also free.
Please come to these if you are around, and please spread the word.
May 2010
Dear Friends,
Two excerpts from Daniel Moult's Virtuoso! Music for Organ are now up on YouTube:
May 2010
Dear Friends,
Some news about an upcoming event. Our film ‘Martinikerk Rondeau’ will play at the Royal Academy of Music, details below. This is the London premiere of this feature-length documentary about the historic organs of Groningen. Full information and reviews are HERE.
The Elusive English Organ now has a clip on our youtube channel:
Our DVDs have all been on sale in our shop at introductory rates. The Art of Fugue, RRP £28.99, is on sale at £24.99; and the Elusive English Organ and Virtuoso! Music for Organ, both RRP £18.99, are on sale at £15.99. These prices will remain until May 10th, after which they will revert to the recommended retail prices. So if you would like to make use of this deal, please visit the shop before May 10th at www.fuguestatefilms.co.uk/shop
We hope to see you at the Royal Academy of Music screening, and please email us at info@fuguestatefilms.co.uk for any further information.
March 2010
February and March are proving to be busy and productive months. Things started very gratifyingly with a couple more highly positive reviews of Pronkjuwelen in Stad in Ommeland in the Organists’ Review and Choir and Organ.
“I cannot commend it highly enough. … The combination of text, DVD and CD recordings form a wonderfully informative trio of material. … The balance between overview and detail is just right, and I enjoyed the CDs all the more for having seen the DVD first.”
“This is quite the most beautifully produced volume that I have ever seen. … The playing is impeccable and the sounds of the organs are a delight. … To describe the DVD in a few words … a veritable feast! … This whole set is a work of art and a labour of love – a real collector’s piece. … Truly impressive.”
I also wrote an article for the Organists’ Review telling the story behind our three organ music documentaries. That issue is available now.
We have now received the Art of Fugue and the Elusive English Organ from the factory. The sets look absolutely super – in addition to the films and recordings the design and packaging is lovely. We are very proud of these projects and have made sure that the products as a whole are handsome objects in their own right.
They are now in stock and on sale – we are now fulfilling all the advance orders we have received over the last few weeks and from now on any new orders will be sent out at once.
As mentioned in the previous newsletter, we are celebrating the launch of our projects with events in London.
On Saturday March 6th the Elusive English Organ will screen as part of London Organ Day. The day runs from 9.30am to 5pm and will take place in the highly atmospheric surroundings of St Anne’s, Limehouse, one of the six famous London churches designed by the Baroque architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. We are delighted to have our film screened in such a venue. Information about how to book is at: http://www.iao.org.uk/events/view.asp?ID=125
On Thursday March 18th at 6.30pm at St George’s Hanover Square we will show a 50 minute version of Desert Fugue, the documentary featuring George Ritchie, Christoph Wolff, Ralph Richards and Bruce Fowkes. There will also be information and discussion about the new Richards and Fowkes organ that is being built for the church. This event is free so please attend and spread the word to anyone with an interest in Bach or the organ.
On Monday May 10th at 7.30pm Martinikerk Rondeau will screen at the Royal Academy of Music. Tickets will be on sale for £5 through the Royal Academy of Music Box Office – we will let you know in this newsletter when these are available to buy.
All of our projects will be available for sale at all of these events.
We will also be selling CDs by Sietze de Vries at these events, and will be adding them to our website. He runs his own record label in the Netherlands, JSB Records, and you can get a taste of his wonderful recordings at www.jsbrecords.nl We are the only English outlet for these recordings.
Full information about our third DVD, Virtuoso! Music for Organ has been added to our website (www.fuguestatefilms.co.uk/virtuoso), and it can be pre-bought in our shop. We are expecting the sets to arrive at the end of this week from the factory, so there will not be long to wait!
We are continuing to add to our website to make it a source of interest. For instance, all of the specifications of the Groningen organs are now online www.fuguestatefilms.co.uk/martinikerk/organ-specs We will add more specs of organs relevant to our projects.
I have also just posted a short essay about George Ritchie’s links with the great German organist Helmut Walcha, explaining why George recorded Walcha’s completion of the Art of Fugue as part of our recording
We hope you will find our site a source of interest, will attend the upcoming events and will enjoy the films and recordings we are now releasing.
February 2010
2010 brings very good news. To begin with, we have just delivered the Art of
Fugue and Elusive English Organ materials to the manufacturer, and we are
also just about to manufacture our third DVD.
This is Virtuoso! Music for Organ, a filmed concert in which Daniel Moult
plays some of the most exciting and challenging organ music written within
the last hundred years. Well-known works by Dupré, Messiaen, Langlais,
Duruflé, and Alain are joined by some less familiar but no less daring
pieces by Ad Wammes, Graeme Koehne, Franz Schmidt and Andries van Rossem.
The programme works beautifully on the magnificent and newly restored organ
of Bridlington Priory, built by the Belgian organ builder Charles Anneessens
in 1889 and restored by Nicholson in 2005. The DVD is accompanied by a CD
with the same programme. We worked for the first time with sound engineer Simon
Eadon who produced a wonderful recording. The filming, done both at night
and during the day, is very atmospheric and really captures Dan's bravura
technique.
These three DVD / CD sets should be in stock by the end of February or
beginning of March. But from this moment you can buy them in advance from
our shop for a reduced price. If you take advantage of this offer, we'll
send them to you as soon as they are available. More details at: www.fuguestatefilms.co.uk/shop
Three events are coming up:
On Saturday, February 20th, Sietze de Vries, who played the organ so
brilliantly in Martinikerk Rondeau, will give a masterclass at Trinity
College, Cambridge on the organ built by Bernhardt Edskes, at 10am, and at
4pm will give a recital at Magdalene, on the organ built by Dominic Gwynn
and Martin Goetze. Both events are free.
The Elusive English Organ is having its premiere at London Organ Day on
Saturday March 6th. We couldn't hope for a more atmospheric location, as
this will take place at the Hawksmoor church of St Anne's, Limehouse. The
day runs from 9.30am to about 5pm and includes masterclass, lectures and a
recital. Full details are at: http://www.iao.org.uk/events/view.asp?ID=125
The Art of Fugue CD and DVD will be launched at St George's, Hanover Square
on Thursday, March 18th from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. We will show an edited down
45 minute version of Desert Fugue, one of the films on the DVD, and there
will be wine and refreshments. St George's is going to be host to the first
American organ built in London by our friends Ralph Richards and Bruce
Fowkes: you can find information and a specification of what will surely be
a fabulous instrument at www.richardsfowkes.com
We have some developments to report about Pronkjuwelen in Stad en Ommeland,
the boxed set of DVD, 5 CDs and book that we worked on with the Dutch
company Boeijenga. The project had a wonderful review by Steve Dunk in the
Organ Club Journal. He describes our feature length documentary Martinikerk
Rondeau as a 'revelation' and goes on to conclude about the boxed set as
whole:
"What more can I say about this fantastic project? . Surely you can tell by
now that I have been bowled over by the sight and sounds of everything
contained in that unassuming slipcase. It is an object lesson in how to
tackle organ histiography in such a way that whether your interest is
history, culture, religion in Europe, organs or organ music you will be
thoroughly satisfied, entertained, informed and delighted by this 'must have'
addition to any organ lover's collection."
We are very grateful for this article, which you can read in full by clicking here.
The whole set is now available also in the NTSC North American edition,
which you can buy through our website by clicking here.
Also, Martinikerk Rondeau will be having a screening in April or May at the
Royal Academy of Music. We will post details here when the date and time is
confirmed.
October 2009
Our film Martinikerk Rondeau was released in the UK on Friday 23 October. It was launched at a screening at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, and the boxed set that it is part of is now on sale.
We received our delivery of these boxed sets a couple of weeks ago and they are very impressive - our Dutch colleagues have done a really great job in making sure that the whole set is beautifully packaged. First, it's big. It's more like an old LP box than a CD one. And then it's filled with interesting things. Inside the box is a large case for the six discs, five CDs and one DVD, plus a booklet with track details etc. Then there's a really beautiful book, which has a long article about the history of the organs of Groningen and specifications and beautiful colour photos of all the nineteen organs used in the production. As a whole the boxed set provides hours of fascinating watching, listening and reading.
So we are really happy that our film is being presented as part of such a beautiful set.
The NTSC edition for North America is in press as we speak and will go on sale before Christmas. We will send out another newsletter when that is ready.
The Art of Fugue and the Elusive English Organ DVDs will be following in early 2010. Our apologies for the ongoing delays in releasing these films.
July 2009
Here is the inaugural newsletter from Fugue State Films. It's taken us some time to get round to writing this, but we've been very busy with 'The Art of Fugue' documentary, and filming in the Netherlands.
First, to introduce ourselves, Fugue State Films is myself, Will Fraser, and my colleague Simon Still. Between us we do everything, so we really are both a small company and also a very, very independent company. The main advantage of this is that we make the films we would like to, and we hope to have a direct link with the people who watch our films and listen to our recordings.
Project Updates:
The Art of Fugue
Our first CD/DVD project, George Ritchie's recording of Bach's Art of Fugue, with a DVD including George's lecture and a feature length documentary about the music, is now very nearly ready. It's been a huge project, absorbing a large amount of our attention since October 2006. I don't want to count the man-hours!
But the result is something we are very proud of and George's recording is wonderful.
After many delays, we are now aiming for an autumn 2009 release. We will post the release date here as soon as it is confirmed and the package will be available to buy through this website, and from other quality music retail outlets!
Pronkjuwelen in Stad en Ommeland
DVD/CD box ‘Pronkjuwelen in Stad en Ommeland’, waar de beroemdste orgels van de provincie Groningen op te zien en te horen zijn.
A comprehensive history of twenty key pipe organs in the provence of Groningen, Netherlands.
We have recently returned from a second stint of filming in Groningen and are now busy editing the footage. During the shoot we traved to Leer, Germany to film metal casting and pipe-making at the workshop of Ahrend Orgelbau and we will be putting some of this footage up on YouTube shortly. We will post the link here when it is available. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHWT6kP5AvI]
We are producing this documentary for Boeijenga Music and you can have a look at their other CDs and DVDs by visiting their website: http://www.muziekhandel-boeijenga.nl.
-email webmaster-
2010 brings very good news. To begin with, we have just delivered the Art of
Fugue and Elusive English Organ materials to the manufacturer, and we are
also just about to manufacture our third DVD.
