July 2025  COMPLETE WORKS FOR SOLO ORGAN - new Hovhaness CD from UK label Toccata Classics

A longstanding gap in the extensive Hovhaness discography has been the near absence of works for solo organ – only two of seven such pieces having been commercially recorded. Most were late, self-published works and lacked the visibility that a mainstream publisher could provide. Now, UK-based independent label Toccata Classics has addressed that gap in one stroke, releasing all seven organ works – five of them world premiere recordings – on a single disc. The program, totalling 75 minutes, even leaves room for Hovhaness's oft-recorded Prayer of St. Gregory in the composer's arrangement for trumpet and organ.

Considering that the young Hovhaness spent a decade as a church organist and became so extraordinarily prolific, it's perhaps surprising that he composed only seven works for solo organ. However, the liner notes cite the composer's own admission that "My pedal technique was very poor – I always considered myself an amateur organist." These recordings bear that out, containing nothing especially technically demanding or revelatory, and one work – the Sonatina – has no part for the organ's pedals. The music is consistently melodic, modal, and attractively crafted. As with much of his piano output, these pieces blend elements taken from his exotic toolbox with a steadfast reverence for idioms such as fugue, canon, and hymn-like chordal writing.

The organist here is the young Englishman Tom Winpenny, one of the most highly acclaimed and prolific exponents of neglected modern repertoire. His discography spans more than 20 recital discs – mainly on the Naxos and Toccata Classics labels. Though Hovhaness's modest organ works may not challenge Winpenny's technical prowess – he has won awards for 'big beasts' of the modern repertoire such as Messiaen's organ cycles – their visionary and meditative qualities benefit magnificently from his interpretive flair and exquisite organ registrations. This is something these works truly need to come off the page, given the composer's characteristically sparse performance directions.

The disc opens with Dawn Hymn (1953), a short piece whose opening arioso may sound familiar to some – Hovhaness later reworked it for woodwind lines in his Mysterious Mountain symphony a couple of years later.

The following four organ works span a productive period from 1981 to 1990 in which the composer wrote three Organ Sonatas and a Sonatina. Like many of Hovhaness's piano sonatas, they forgo classical structure in favour of freer forms. The Organ Sonatina comprises three short movements, the third's expressive melody lifted directly from the final movement of Symphony No. 23. Organ Sonata No. 3 is subtitled "Hermit Thrush" and its single movement is flanked by an introduction and coda of bird-like calls in the organ's high register. Between these lies a hymn and fughetta section set to a persistent 7/4 rhythm of three quarter-notes followed by two half-notes. The booklet notes flag up that this trademark Hovhaness rhythm, also heard elsewhere on this disc, was speculated by composer Arnold Rosner to be Hovhaness's musical signature, as it matched the rhythm of his spoken name: A-lan Hov-HAN-ess. As alluring as Rosner's theory is (it seems more inspired than conspicuous cryptograms like B-A-C-H and D-S-C-H) Hovhaness himself described it as "a sacred rhythm [of] three beats for heaven and four beats for earth". But after six minutes of this almost unrelenting rhythm what seems more heavenly is the respite provided by the coda's returning bird calls.