Unsettling Organist | James B. Welch, Concert and Recital

In all of Mormondom, only a handful of organs really deserve the name. The overwhelming and depressing majority of our instruments are electronic imitations (appliances, a friend of mine calls them) or cheap pipe organs a la Wicks whose clicks, pops and uneven voicing are almost as irksome as the acoustical smog generated by their electronic counterparts. Not that anything better is usually needed. Aside from playing a few decadent hymns, remnants of more exciting years, most Mormon organists get by quite nicely with easy-listening, “reverent” music, most of which sounds like supermarket music without the beat. Faced with inadequate instruments and mediocre musical tastes, often blamed on the Holy Ghost, many Church organists quite sensibly choose to study something else or seek a career and musical fulfillment in non-Mormon churches where good music is not only appreciated but paid for. 

Despite the gloomy future confronting Mormon organists, very occasionally a talent appears that is just too bright to be extinguished. Aside from the prosaic titles, Concert and Recital offer a worthy selection of music and an impressive display of James B. Welch’s considerable gifts as an organist. Highlights of the first album include Walther’s little known Third Organ Concerto and a flawless rendition of J. S. Bach’s finger-breaking Fugue in G Major (the “Jig Fugue”), played in a crisp, detached style which recalls Schreiner at his best. The flip side presents the equally difficult Prelude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain by Maurice Durufle, a brooding work demanding exceptional technique and mature musical sensitivity; Mr. Welch fails on neither count. The final selection is a frothy bit of post-Romantic pap by Louis Vierne— which just happens to be hard as hell. For the second album, Recital, Mr. Welch joins forces with Robert Hubbard to perform Koetsier’s hauntingly beautiful First Partita for Organ and English Horn. The rest of the album is devoted to several of Bach’s smaller works, some Hindemithy pieces by Ernst Pepping and a delightful performance of a short sonata by the Portuguese composer Joao de Sousa Carvalho. (If anybody is wondering, Mr. Welch served a mission in Brazil.) Kudos are also in order for Dave Wilson, the audio engineer. Aside from some overmiking of the English horn, both albums are superbly engineered, rivaling the best recordings of large, commercial firms. 

Concert and Recital, James B. Welch, Organist, private label. (James Welch, Department of Music, University of California, Santa Barbara CA 93106)