A new recording on the King's College Chapel organ has debuted at #1 in the UK Specialist Classical charts in the week of its release. The album, released earlier in June on the King's College record label, features the College's Director of Music, Stephen Cleobury. Recorded just months after the successful competetion of the 2016 organ restoration at King's, Stephen plays a varied programme designed to show off the different colours and the dynamic range of the restored instrument. The coveted #1 spot was taken by the album The King of Instruments: A Voice Reborn which means it was the best-selling fully-classical album in the UK upon its release. The Sunday Times recently wrote of Stephen's new album: Six of his chorale preludes are highly absorbing, not least because Cleobury finds a different registration for each. Franck’s Pièce héroïque mines a deep shaft of basso sonority that contrasts with the prevailing textural delicacy, and indeed deliciousness, of the Bach and a Mendelssohn sonata. The effect is magnificent. The launch of the album coincided with the release of a timelapse of the organ restoration, set to music from the new album. Find out more about the King of Instruments: A Voice Reborn on the King's College recordings website.
