ITALIAN ORGAN WORKS. Fernando Germani. Archive 2533 043 (47s. 6d./ L2.38). Played on the Pietro Nacchini Organ in Santa Maria del Riposo, Venice, Italy.

Frescobaldi: Toccata Quinta ; Toccata Quarta; Toccata Prima; Toccata Terza; Toccata Sesta. Pasguint: Toccata dell'ottavo tono in G major; Sonata in E minor. Zipoll: Canzona in G minor. Casini: Pensiero per l'organo No. 2 in D major. Bencini: Fuga in G major ; Sonata in F minor. Porpora: Fuga in E flat major.

Fernando Germani is here delving deep into the roots of old Italian organ music from which his own genius flowered, and bringing to these ancient forms a rare understanding and sympathy. The organ is the eighteenth-century instrument in the church of Santa Maria del Riposo in Venice, tonally unchanged by its restoration ten years ago. One whole side is devoted to five little toccatas by Frescobaldi. They are not the florid exercises in the grand manner as

Bach or Widor understood the form, but delicate little pieces associated with the liturgy. In the toccatas for the elevation (of the host), with their daring dissonances symbolising the sufferings of Christ on the cross, Germani makes effective use of the old Italian device the piffero, combining a soft principal with another tuned slightly above in order to produce a mild vibrato which infuses them with warmth and vitality. And throughout his playing is rhythmically flexible and almost declamatory in style, interpreting the spirit rather than the letter of the music.

The second side of the record bridges the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with pieces that take us from Pasquini (after Frescobaldi himself the greatest of the organists of papal Rome) to Porpora (a leading figure in the Neapolitan opera seria). Pasquini's Toccata on the Eighth Tone is full of rich ornamentation and figuration very reminiscent of the style of Frescobaldi. Perhaps a record mainly for the student of the period, but not without interest to the general listener. S.W.