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Sounds of Francis Jackson.
Simon Nieminski, organ. Lammas Records, Lamm 127D. Full price.

Over the near-half century spanned by the works on this disc, Francis Jackson¹s music has lost none of its intensity, integrity or questing edge. Simon Nieminski, a former organ scholar at York Minster where Dr Jackson directed the music for more than 30 years, shows his empathy for the idiom in this attractive recording from St Mary¹s Cathedral, Edinburgh. Youthful spirit occasionally turns to haste, but more often it serves to bring to vivid life pieces like the Third Sonata, the Prelude on an American Folk Hymn and the deftly worked Partita on a Somerset Carol. The playing is good.
(Yorkshire Post)

The Organ Symphonies of Edward Shippen Barnes

Simon Nieminski / St Mary’s Cathedral, Peoria, Illinois
PRO ORGANO CD 7131
66’09”

From Simon Nieminski, St Mary’s Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, EH12 5AW (£13.50 inc P&P); Pro Organo (USA); Priory Records (UK) 

Following the success of his recording of Reuchsel’s Promenades en Provence (reviewed in The Organ, No 315, February 2001) Simon Nieminski has this time turned his attention to the music of an American, albeit one immersed in the French Romantic traditions.

Edward Shippen Barnes (1887-1958) was born in New Jersey, studied with Horatio Parker at Yale and then spent time at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. There he was a student of, amongst others, Vincent d’Indy and Louis Vierne. He also met Widor, and sat with him at the console of St Sulpice. These famed composers had a profound influence on Barnes, and despite returning to America where he was organist at a number of major churches, his music shows obvious delight in his experiences whilst in Paris.

Barnes wrote two symphonies, the first of which (1918) is dedicated to his organ teacher at Yale, Harry Jepson.It bears resemblance to Vierne’s 1^st Symphonie, beginning with a sombre and imposing Prélude which makes way for a more upbeat Allegro.The third movement, Scherzo, is delightful, exploiting quiet flutes and Swell Oboe. A haunting Andante and final Toccata sur un thème grégorien completes the five movement work, whose harmonic language is strongly French. The Second Symphony dedicated to mon cher ami et maître Monsieur Louis Vierne is similar in format, although this time it is the first movement which is more outgoing, the second being a delightful Cantilène. Despite the dedication to Vierne, this work feels rather more American than the first, but there is nonetheless definite hints of Paris, not least in the dancing Intermezzo - this could surely be from Vierne’s own pen!

Simon Nieminski has chosen for this recording the 1937 Wicks organ of St Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, one of the first organs that Henry Vincent Willis (grandson of Father Willis) was involved with having started working with Wicks.The consultant for the project was a Belgian organist, whose influence is clearly seen in the final specification, which boasts mutations (including a Septieme 1¹/₇’) and many mixtures. The smoothness of the reeds and polite upperwork betray that this instrument is not truly French/Belgian, but it is quite in sympathy with Barnes’s interesting music.

Simon Nieminski, currently Assistant Organist at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, is a worthy advocate of this virtually unknown music. His use of the organ is colourful, thoroughly exploiting the piquant mutations and numerous imitative reeds and strings - technically he proves himself a more than able performer.

Pro Organo and Simon Nieminski must be commended for searching out this music and having the courage to record it - would that other companies would make the efforts to record music which is both unusual and worthy.
SF
(The Organ)

Reuchsel: Promenades in Provence
Simon Nieminski, organ
Pro Organo 7112—76 minutes

This is a splendid release. The instrument is a powerful four-manual Kilgen-Moller-Wicks in the Cathedral of Saint Louis (MO); the artist is currently the Assistant Organist at St Mary’s, Edinburgh. Reuchsel (1900-88), a name unfa­miliar in organ literature, was trained in the Paris Conservatory as a pianist and later stud­ied with Busoni. His three-volume Promenades en Provence from 1938-1973 are richly atmos­pheric, and call to mind the writing of Ermend Bonnal (another little-known composer). There is plenty of variety here, from the introspective folk tune settings and old carols to a rollicking carillon (Feast Day) and a piece (The Cloister) whose form is borrowed in general from Dupré’s Prelude & Fugue in B. In fact, a number of these pieces are dedicated to organists who inspired the composer, such as Duruflé, Demessieux, and Cochereau. Most are rather free in form, more intended to evoke moods or pictures than possess structural cohesion. Those that fare the least well are those intended to portray moving subjects (Multicolored Sails and Sunlit Clouds). Aside from changes in volume there are too few registration shifts to make the picture convincing. On the other hand, the more forceful canvases are quite effective (Feast Day, The Bells of Notre-Dame, and The Grand Organ) and demand a sizable instrument – like the one heard here – to do them justice. Organists looking for seldom heard recital literature should investigate these pieces (Lemoine and Universal Editions).

The baby-faced photo [performer's note: “Taken as a compliment!!!”] of the performer belies a maturity of approach and technique. He lingers where needed and articulates clearly enough to avoid the muddiness so often encountered in reverberant spaces (about 8 seconds here). These are colorful tapestries cast in late 19th Century harmony with frequent touches of impressionism, performed with taste and sensitivity. There is a lot of poetry here.    METZ
(American Record Guide)

Eugène Reuchsel: Promenades en Provence and selections from Bouquet de France. Pro Organo CD7112

A distinguished young British organist, Simon Nieminski, assistant organist at St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, devotes this recording to the music of a too-little-known composer - Eugène Reuchsel (1900-1988) - played expertly on the newly restored Kilgen organ of the Cathedral of St Louis, in St Louis, Mo. The massive organ (stop list and specs included in the liner) and resonant space seem ideal for the virtuoso repertoire heavily indepted to Reuchsel's beloved and admired predecessors in the French symphonic school, Widor, Vierne, Dupré and Bonnet. The 13 selections from the three volumes of Reuchsel's Promenades en Provence (1959 and 1973) are complemented by two selections from Reuchsel's Bouquet de France, a collection of folk-song harmonizations originally composed in the 1940s for voice and piano but arranged for solo organ by Reuchsel by 1987. More than an hour and a quarter of magnificent music played magnificently.
R. Alan Kimbrough
Dayton, Ohio
(The Living Church) (USA)

Eugène Reuchsel – Promenades en Provence

Simon Nieminski / St Louis Cathedral, St Louis, Missouri

PRO ORGANO CD7112      76’07"

The mighty 143 stop organ in St Louis Cathedral originates from an instrument by Kilgen, enlarged by Möller in 1984 and more recently by Wicks in 1996.It is typical of the gargantuan instruments found in America, its stop list characterised by a proliferation of everything, and its console (looking the size of a small house) appears to have more ivory than wood! In the wonderfully warm acoustic of the Cathedral the sound of this perhaps excessive instrument is absolutely fantastic and far more characterful than many of these ‘mega-organs’.Simon Nieminski, currently Assistant Organist at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, displays complete control over its resplendent resources, and does full justice to Reuchsel’s colourful Promenades.

Eugène Reuchsel (1900-1988) published the three volumes of his Promenades en Provence in 1959 (Vols 1 and 2) and 1973 (Vol 3) – in total 13 colourful impressions of life in that particular region of France.Their harmonic language is not far removed from Vierne’s Pièces de Fantaisie or Pièces en Style Libre, occasionally betraying their later composition but always pleasing to the ear. What sets them apart from Vierne is their overt programmatic nature, from the gentle percussive beating in Tambourinaires sur la place des Vieux Salins to the insistent ringing of the bell at the Cathusian Monastery (La Chartreuse de Montrieux au crépuscule). Rather more resplendent is the Jour de Fête aux Saintes-Maries de la Mer with fiery toccata figurations that allow the mixtures and reeds to ring around the spacious acoustic. The weighty pedal is more than a match for such jubilant writing, the presence of digital, rather than pipe, sub-unisons unnoticeable. Listening to this music there will be no room for doubt that Reuchsel was a highly talented tone painter. I was particularly taken with the slow, lumbering gait of Daudet’s windmill (Le Moulin d’Alphonse Daudet à Fontveille), building up to a tremendously powerful conclusion, closing with a low fifth in the Pedal.

This is a most rewarding new release, bringing to light some little known repertory which deserves to be heard far more than it is. Simon Nieminski, whose elegant and stylish performances throughout are a pleasure to listen to, must be congratulated for bringing to light the Promenades.    SF
(The Organ)

The playing was fresh and exciting, and Nieminski communicated his excitement at being able to play on this marvellous 1881 Willis Organ.
(Musical Times)

The ability to project confidence, whether he feels it or not, is an invaluable attribute in a musician. It can place an audience at ease, while even a trace of nervousness can render the same audience jumpy, apprehensive, and in no frame of mind to enjoy the music. From the first bars of Bach’s Wedge E minor Prelude and Fugue, which opened the lunchtime concert in Dundee University Chaplaincy yesterday, it was immediately apparent that Simon Nieminski possesses this ability. This was a marvellous piece of Bach playing - it all flowed naturally and beautifully, helped enormously by Mr Nieminski’s subtle, tasteful and intelligent phrasing. Two pieces by Herbert Howells, Dalby’s Fancy and Dalby’s Toccata, came over splendidly on the small chaplaincy organ. The quiet flutes seemed perfectly suited to the first piece, and the Toccata, too, was brilliantly done, with some high-speed stop-changing by Mr Nieminski. The final work was a suite of seven tiny vignettes from the Resurrection by Mozart’s little-known contemporary Knecht, often touchingly naïve. It was charming and lovely, imaginatively registered and, above all, thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable.
(The Courier)

It was interesting to hear how a virtuoso like Simon Nieminski is able to deploy the limited resources of an instrument as small as the organ in Dundee University Chaplaincy in a way that maximises its potential. In a programme of music ranging from the baroque through the classical period to the 20th century, the seven stops of this fine little organ, used with flair and imagination together with masterly phrasing, touch and expression, gave the impression that we were hearing an instrument with a much wider tonal palette. The programme opened with Vincent Lübeck’s Præambulum in E, a rhapsodic work which, played as dramatically as it was yesterday, was full of style and excitement - the pedal solos, taken at this speed, were outstanding, and the manual flourishes were perfectly timed for maximum impact. Then came three items from the series of short clavichord pieces dedicated by Herbert Howells to his musician friends. They sound well on this organ, understandably quiet but very much in the distinctive and personal style of the composer. Simon Nieminski, now assistant organist at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, concluded his concert with a flute concerto by Beethoven’s contemporary Rinck. Despite its title it was, surprisingly, actually written for the organ and it suits the Chaplaincy instrument admirably. It calls for a very deft keyboard technique, but not even the trickiest runs seemed to present the slightest challenge to Nieminski, who negotiated its sparkling semiquaver arabesques and other musical hurdles with aplomb and panache.
(The Courier)

Simon Nieminski stellte sich als Organist von hervorragendem Können vor. Der junge Meister spielte Bachs Toccata, Adagio und Fuge (BWV564) mit großen Atem, von dem die Komposition geprägt ist. Mit geschickter Registrierung und virtuosem Anschlag brachte er das Andante Recitativ und Allegro Vivace aus Mendelssohns erster Sonate zum Klingen. Ein Höhepunkt der Vespermusiken.
(Rheinische Post.)
(Simon Nieminski showed himself to be an organist of outstanding ablilty. The young master played Bach's Toccata, Adagio and Fugue (BWV564) with the great panache required by the piece. With skilful registration and virtuosic attack he played the Andante Recitativ and Allegro Vivace from Mendelssohn's First Sonata. A high point of the evening's concert.)