Ogden, Nigel: Saints on a Spree

Saints on a Spree is a stylish and not altogether reverent fantasy on several popular tunes associated with saintliness. Lively episodes in Latin-American and schmaltzy-waltz mood pull the carpet from under a solemn, hymn-like opening. Things get even more wild when Widor’s Toccata from the Fifth Symphony and Brahms’s Lullaby put in an appearance. With his usual masterly craftsmanship, Nigel Ogden, leading light-organist and host of long-running Radio 2 series The Organist Entertains, draws all these ideas into a grand and saintly peroration, which will sound as good whether played on an electronic instrument as on a church organ.