home > reviews > organist Conductor Organist Harpsichordist Composer   Newman as Organist The New York Times, 1990 “Anthony Newman’s immense physical talent for playing keyboard instruments is certainly basic to his prolific ventures in the music business.  On Sunday afternoon at Holy Trinity Church, Mr. Newman roared through six Mendelssohn organ sonatas and three Preludes and Fugues as if the effort were barely worth mentioning.  It is perhaps this easy fluency and high energy level that allows him to pursue so many things – piano, fortepiano and harpsichord performances, conducting, composing and editing…The sheer kinetic force of the playing had its visceral charm, and Sunday’s large audience reacted enthusiastically to the frequent bursts of power… …Mr. Newman is simply an organist for our time – hard-hitting, action-packed, hugely skilled…these are star qualities… a star he most certainly is.” _______________________________________ The New York Times, 2004 “The bird collection, which opened the program, included Messiaen’s richly inventive “Chants Oiseaux,” sandwiched between two Baroque works, Rameau’s “Poule” and Daquin’s “Coucou.”  These scores are not just bird-song mimicry, of course:  Rameau, Daquin and Messiaen wove their birdcalls into their more abstract musical discourses, offering moments of evocative imitation here and there.  Mr. Newman balanced these works’ sinews and pictorial frills sensibly, and drew fully on the coloristic resources of the church’s Aeolian-Skinner organ. His inventiveness with color was evident elsewhere, too, most notably in his alternation of flute and reed timbres in Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E (BWV 548) and an unusually brisk account of the Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C (BWV 582), which closed the concert.” _______________________________________ The New York Times, 1989 “That may be taking purity beyond the limits of practicality, but Mr. Newman’s performances were certainly vivid.  They were also played more briskly than one often hears them; bur Mr. Newman supported his tempos by citing the writings of Charles Tournemire, one of Franck’s students. More crucially, he approached Franck’s registrational contrasts with virtuosic fluidity, drawing easily on a wide, contrasting timbral palette.  Even such comparatively modest works as the Fantasies in A major and C major, the “Prière” and the Cantabile in B minor became wonderfully textured and sometimes dramatic essays. The combination of the organ’s attractively transparent coloration and Mr. Newman’s vibrant approach made for an especially lovely rendering of the popular Prélude, Fugue et Variation.  And the splashier, more openly picturesque works – the “Pièce Héroïque” and the “Grand Pièce Symphonique,” for instance – benefited from unflaggingly robust performances and an almost cinematic variety breadth.” _______________________________________ Music in Old Krakow, Gazeta Krakowkoska, 1999 “The first part of the recital Newman ended with his own delicate composition in a style of the French organ music of the XX century:  Adagio and Toccata from the II Symphony.  In the second part of the recital, he brilliantly played Grande Piece Symphonique op. 17 by Cezar Franck; in the end, he returned to Bach.  I must admit that I have never heard such a monumental and ravishing performance of Passacaglia and Fugue c-minor BWV 582 played live.” _______________________________________ Plattenumschau, Record Review “These four music cassettes, which have just come out from Newport Classic, can only be described as “incredible.” “…these organ recordings so thoroughly overturn the way we are used to hearing Bach’s organ music played, and not in an eccentric sense that they should not be taken seriously, but rather they are quite serious.” “…the organist Anthony Newman…possesses unbelievable technical skills, and not only in the sense that he can play incredibly fast.” “What now makes this recording so interesting is that it is so passionately gripping, it is so musical and played in such a way that it does even not bother with traditions as we know them….rather it seems to go its own new way.” “…they are always sparkling, inspiring, musical and never boring.” “…the recording is so inspiring, so exciting, that you will want to listen to it for hours on end.  This recording has doubtlessly upped the bidding as to where the limits of performance are.” _______________________________________ The New York Times, 1987 “Ears more attuned than mine to the fine specifics of organ building will have to judge just how well Rieger has met the challenge, but Mr. Newman’s demonstration of the instrument’s versatility was stunningly convincing.  He exploited its responsiveness of touch to the utmost.  He has the virtuoso command of fingerwork to achieve brilliant distinctness at high speed (runs played too smoothly will blur together).  His flair for theatrical, propulsive rhythms is exciting; his ornamentation is unusually fluent and unmannered.  His pedalwork in the F major toccata, S. 540, was spectacular:  If one insisted on counting along, it was evident that he played a bit slower than when the corresponding fast passages came around on the manuals, but the impression was of unbroken velocity, headlong yet fully under control.” _______________________________________ Digital Audio & Compact Disc Review, 1988 Newport Classics series of recordings of Bach organ works is in several ways a revelation.  First, there’s this organist, Anthony Newman, who rolls even Bach’s most difficult works off his fingers (and beneath his feet) as if he were born to it.  There’s something indescribably comforting and reassuring about listening to a performer who you know is in total control.” “Newman never presumes to conquer Bach – only to interpret him in the most tasteful but imaginative way possible. Newman convinces you with technical perfection and with some of the most inspired registration you’re every likely to hear.” _______________________________________ Chicago Sun-Times, 1988 “The way to get more people to the Allied arts organ series is to have more performances of the type Anthony Newman brought to Orchestra Hall Friday.” “…serious, dedicated playing is no match for the excitement Newman generates.” “He revealed two very great advantages over the majority of his predecessors.  First, he made superior use of the resources of the instrument.  Newman obviously is a master of registration; he blends organ sounds with acute skill.” “…he projects his energy and insight.  His strong commitment to the music shows in his playing and sweeps you along.  Everything he does seems to capture the imagination.” “Here were two of the greatest works revealed in their fullest glory.” “…Newman the composer was heard in two ingenious and attractive improvisations and his variations on the ‘The Battle hymn of the Republic’.” _______________________________________ Chicago Sun Times, 1986 “The first half of the concert was devoted to French organ works of the late 19th century, the second to J.S. Bach.  French composers, including those heard Tuesday, Charles-Marie Widor, Cesar Franck and Louis Vierne, exploited the massive symphonic sound available on organs of their time and Newman was not shy about letting loose his instrument’s power.  But sonic effects were carefully controlled, though the changes in volume in the opening work, the allegro movement of Widor’s organ Symphony No. 6 seemed abrupt.  The scherzo movement of Vierne’s Organ Symphony No. 2 had a jaunty ragtime feel to it, the organ at times sounding like a hurdy-gurdy.” _______________________________________ The Register-Guard, 1993 “Anthony Newman is an authentic virtuoso, and the key word there is authentic.  His performances combine a deep and wide-ranging scholarship, compelling musicianship, fluent technical skill and an “X” factor of presence that takes audiences on a trip back in time.” “Newman’s brief discourses were illuminating and entertaining, and flowed like his music from a lifetime of knowledge.” “And Newman plays them both with breathtaking pace and skill, doing all the mechanical business of organ playing with the aplomb of an Olympic athlete – pulling knobs, shoving keyboards, kicking pedals, wrestling with the gigantic Ahrend Baroque tracker organ in Beall Hall as if to throw the beast to the ground.” _______________________________________ The Washington Post “It was a midnight mass of the brightest colors, a celebration of music itself.  Anthony Newman played Bach on the Kennedy Center’s much neglected Concert Hall organ as Saturday turned to Sunday, and well over 1,000 people stayed up and cheered.” “It was a celebration of the organ, an instrument that not even the human voice can surpass in its power to envelop all the senses. Organ and organist both were models of commanding clarity and authoritative splendor.  Newman was particularly majestic in the double-pedaled chorale and prelude of “An Wasserfluessen Babylon,” as well as in the famous Prelude and Fugue in D Major.  And the serenity that settled on ‘Schmuecke dich, o liebe Seele’ never left him throughout the morning.”