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During his monumental 53-year concert career, Virgil Fox was known primarily as an innovator. In the recording field alone, he was the first organist, and one of the few classical musicians, to seek out the most advanced recording techniques available. Leopold Stokowski, who was originally an organist, was his counterpart when it came to recording the symphony orchestra.

Despite his recent bout with cancer, Fox eagerly undertook a strenuous direct-to-disc recording project with Crystal Clear Records in 1977. Direct-to-disc lathes cannot be stopped until a complete side is recorded, contrary to the usual edit and splice system. Although Fox’s first commercial acoustical recordings (for RCA Victor) in 1941 were also direct-to-disc, released on relatively short 78’s, the intervening popularity of the Long Playing record (20-25 minutes per side) made the 1977 sessions infinitely more grueling.

Having celebrated the 50th anniversary of his debut as a concert organist during the same year, at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, where he was a Founding Artist, Virgil Fox chose the new, brilliant Fratelli Ruffatti organ (116 ranks) at California’s Garden Grove Community Church (now half of the organ at The Crystal Cathedral) for four days of demanding sessions, August 28-31, 1977.

These sessions were not only recorded direct-to-disc, although that format’s “tyranny” (his word) dictated the performances. They were also simultaneously recorded by Bob Ingebretsen of Soundstream Digital Recording, and therefore the first commercial digital recording sessions in the United States. The great recording engineer, Bert Whyte (who had also worked with Leopold Stokowski), supervised everything, creating historic sessions under difficult conditions.

This CD is taken from the digital recordings of the sessions, which were destined to be Virgil Fox’s only digital recordings. He died on October 25, 1980. Twenty-five years later, he is still the most famous American organist on recordings.

Richard Torrence
Virgil Fox’s Manager
from 1962-1979