Swayne: Stations of the Cross
Simon Nieminski (organ)
Swayne’s hour-long stations of the Cross is a monumental, impactful work, Messiaen-esque in style and ambition. Wonderful paying and exceptional recording quality.
Swayne: Stations of the Cross
Simon Nieminski (organ)
Purchase product
Swayne’s hour-long stations of the Cross is a monumental, impactful work, Messiaen-esque in style and ambition. Wonderful paying and exceptional recording quality.
About
Resonus Classics is proud to release the world premiere recording of Giles Swayne's epic organ work Stations of the Cross. Making his Resonus debut with Stations is the Edinburgh-based organist Simon Niemiński.
Recorded on the 2007 Matthew Copley organ of St Mary's Metroplitan Cathedral in Edinburgh - where Simon is the resdent organist - this extensive solo work is at the pinnacle of virtuosic organ repertoire, with each of the fourteen movements representing an episode in the story of the Passion of Christ.
Composed during autumn 2004 and early 2005, and at one hour in length, Stations is one of the most significant and substantial organ works to have been commissioned in recent times. Focusing particularly on those human aspects of the Passion most important to Swayne, he has created an intensely powerful and descriptive work that surely ranks among the most important works of the organ repertoire.
Contents and tracklist
- Simon Nieminski (organ)
- Recorded: 3-5 October 2012
- Recording Venue: St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Simon Nieminski (organ)
- Recorded: 3-5 October 2012
- Recording Venue: St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Awards and reviews
June 2020
Swayne’s hour-long stations of the Cross is a monumental, impactful work, Messiaen-esque in style and ambition. Wonderful paying and exceptional recording quality.
May 2020
In terms of evocative gesture and the way in which Swayne devises his own modes, the music of his teacher Messiaen, stripped of its deeply imbued Catholic mystery, hovers in the background. It seems to me at its best when at its most organ- centric; the trio in ‘Simon of Cyrene’, and the concluding Prelude & Fugue (‘Jesus’ body is laid in the tomb’). As one would expect, Simon Niemiński plays this hugely difficult score brilliantly.
June 2020
The scope of the work is dark, dramatic and emotionally intense and the musical language uncompromisingly dissonant...Simon Nieminski champions this vast score with a compelling intensity that captures the visionary scope of Swayne’s writing magnificently. This is neither a work nor a performance for the fainthearted; but for those willing to give themselves up to this strangely powerful music, there is much to savour.
