OR: Widor: Symphony No.5/Vierne: Carillon/Reubke: Sonata

Review Viernes Carillon de Westminster dongs out the chimes of the famous clock tower as though through a pre-war London fog, and the blurring effect, as of an impressionist painting, is well displayed by Simon Preston under the far distant ceiling of Westminster Abbey... Pure sentiment or not, I prefer this performance to any Ive heard on French organs...Widor seems to have a little more spread round the middle, but he is certainly invested with glowing colours amid a marvellous sense of space. Simon Preston commands and directs the passing pageant with a fine sense of timing --Gordon Reynolds, Gramophone, October 1984 There seems an infinity of brooding stops, hugging closely together, growing and melting under that high vault like cloudy shadows, changing shape with the moods as they reveal themselves. Reeds and mixtures, when they are roused, pierce this misty scene with lightning shafts and gentlemanly Harrison snarls. This performance is wholly riveting --Gordon Reynolds, Gramophone, July 1985 (Reubke)