Exhilarating performances A historic organ recital by Virgil Fox, reviewed by PATRIC STANDFORD Circles International    SMD-041

In September 1976 Charles F Swisher and Keith Johnson made recordings of the legendary organist Virgil Fox during his recitals at St Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco. The recordings were done with limited equipment and no budget, and it is due to the miracle process using isopropyl alcohol that the tapes, which were quite damaged, were restored to recapture what the 5,500 strong audience remembered as an occasion 'so sonically luminous it took one's breath away'.

Virgil Fox died just four years later, and this first volume recaptures one of his greatest American Bach triumphs. It is a showman's concert. The performances are eccentric and the audience responses, evidently very excited, are all included, and arising out of the appaluse Fox regales his audience with the last half page again!

The concert includes the G minor Fantasy and Fugue (BWV 542); Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C (BWV 564); two more Fugues, with their Preludes (BWV 543 and 532) and some extras (like the finale from the St Matthew Passion). The whole recording is like a vast musical party [listen -- track 2, 4:56-track 3, 0:32], and if you can stand playing it over several times, there are some exhilarating (if not always quite authentic) performances.

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Record Box is Music & Vision's regular series of shorter CD reviews