Jan Kraybill The Orchestral Organ

Reference Recordings RR-145, SACD and HDCD™

Price: $19.98; high-resolution download file, $24.98

While I don't do music reviews on a regular basis, there are times when a particular album really strikes me, and I have to say something…usually brief, but definite.

This is one of those times.

I just received a new SACD from my friends at Reference Recordings. Jan Mancuso has been my long-time contact there, and she's been faithful over many years now in keeping me in touch with the latest from RR. I have LPs, SACDs, and even their HRx 176.4kHz/24-bit DVD Audio discs and their HDCD™ discs from back when…we have a real library of RR recordings here!

The constant through them all has been "Professor" Keith Johnson as the audio engineer par excellence who, along with company founder Tam Henderson, have been the guiding spirits of RR over time.

I do really love organ music, but have heard some bad organ recordings. Generally, it's either a question of a performance that leaves me cold, and/or a mediocre recording, and/or a less-than-alluring venue, and/or (more commonly) a selection of music that does nothing for me. There are more ways to go wrong than right with the organ, you see.

I'm delighted to say that Dr. Jan Kraybill's selections, her performance, the instrument and venue (the Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant Organ at the Kauffman Center's Helzberg Hall in Kansas City), and the quality of this SACD evidences none of the above kisses of death. Her biography and notes on this recording will be found at her hyperlinked name above.

And just check out this repertoire!

Selections:

Tchaikovsky

Coronation March* (5:58)

Barber

Adagio for Strings (9:55)

Gounod

Funeral March of a Marionette (5:22)

Holst

Chaconne, from First Suite for Military Band, Op. 28, No. 1* (5:16)

Sibelius

Finlandia (8:50)

Řezníček

Praeludium and Chromatic Fugue** (13:39)

Saint-Saëns

Romance, from Orchestral Suite in D, Op. 49 (6:03)

Wagner

Forest Murmurs, from Siegfried* (4:23)

Mendelssohn

Scherzo, from A Midsummer Night's Dream (6:23)

Järnefelt

Praeludium for small orchestra (3:10)

Verdi

Grand March, from Aïda

* First Recording

* World Premiere

This is a wonderful collection of music. I was quite pleased by all of them, but can give a special tip o' my hat to the Barber, the Gounod, the Sibelius, the…what the heck! No point in making this list; I liked them all!

Kraybill's performance has a nice balance of verve and control. The overall impression is of joy and pleasure in the music, which flows from her understanding and touch. Her selections allow her to explore various moods and emotions, which is always quite pleasant. The progression of the album shows a sound sense of movement. Well done.

My first audition was in our downstairs multi-channel room, which is well-vaulted, and spacious. From the first strains of RR's recording of Kraybill, both Lila and I were entranced by the music. In fact, given some of my past disappointments with a few organ albums, I was pleased (and relieved!) to be enjoying what I was hearing. The quality the surround sound was really excellent, and it filled our room in a lovely way.

For the record, our surround system features the following: The player is an Oppo 205 4K universal player, outputting to our Linn Kisto Surround Controller, which sends the surround signal to a pair of Linn 5125 six-channel amps wired in bi-amped mode. These send the signal to a pair of Linn Akurate 242 speakers (left/right front), the Akurate 225 center channel speaker, and a pair of Linn 212 speakers for the left right rear. The subwoofer output goes to a Paradigm SUB25 powered sub with 15" driver. We have Furutech handling the power conditioning and distribution via a pair of Daytona 303. Synergistic Research has provided an Atmosphere XL4 for ambience control, a set of MiG 2.0 footers, a Synergistic Research Grounding Block, and a set of HFT enhancement devices. The results are quite spacious and well balanced, with lovely enveloping sound, dialed in by the Atmospere XL4. (For more on my current reference systems, click on my hyperlinked name…my byline…at the top of any of my essays or reviews.)

My first notes from that listening session really do say it.

"We are listening to the DSD 5.1 now in our multi-channel room. My first impression is that this is a truly glorious recording, with Jan Kraybill providing stellar performances. I love the repertoire; not a "so what?!" in the entire bunch! The surround recording is done with real feeling and technical virtuosity in the audio arts. The sense of space and realistic decay is quite fine, and draws you into the room to sit and listen. This is a truly exemplary organ recording, one that I will listen to again and again."

I've since listened to this SACD in stereo mode on our upstairs reference system…Playback Designs MPT-8 and MPD-8 for the source, each with a Synergistic Research Tranquility Base, Nelson Pass Xs Preamp and Xs 150 Monoblock Amplifiers, with the Synergistic Research PowerCell 12 UEF, Active Grounding, UEF Interconnects, and Atmosphere Infinity in place, all feeding a pair of Evolution Acoustics Micro One Monitors at the current time.

While the stereo version on the SACD doesn't have the same sense of envelopment that the surround version in 5.1 does, the quality of the performance and the emotional connection with the music is still there.

Kraybill has definitely demonstrated virtuosity and soul in her performance, and this RR SACD delivers the goods in an exemplary way. Many thanks to Dr. Kraybill and the team at Reference Recordings for renewing my faith in the possibilities of contemporary organ recordings! If you love organ music the way that I do, and especially if you have a surround system, then you simply must not miss this SACD.

Enough said!

Reference Recordings

P.O. Box 77225

San Francisco, CA 94107

Phone (for orders): 800.336.8866

Phone International: 1.650.355.1845

https://referencerecordings.com/