Stations of the Cross (Live) McNeil Robinson

• McNeil Robinson (1943 - 2015): Stations of the Cross (Based on Themes by N. Rorem):
• 1No. 1, Jesus Is Condemned to Death [Live]05:55
• 2No. 2, Jesus Takes Up His Cross [Live]05:44
• 3No. 3, Jesus Falls the First Time [Live]04:11
• 4No. 4, Jesus Meets His Afflicted Mother [Live]04:22
• 5No. 5, The Cross Is Laid on Simon of Cyrene [Live]05:18
• 6No. 6, Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus [Live]04:24
• 7No. 7, Jesus Falls the Second Time [Live]04:37
• 8No. 8, Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem [Live]05:20
• 9No. 9, Jesus Falls the Third Time [Live]04:38
• 10No. 10, Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments [Live]04:20
• 11No. 11, Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross [Live]04:43
• 12No. 12, Jesus Dies on the Cross [Live]07:27
• 13No. 13, Jesus' Body Is Placed in the Arms of His Mother [Live]04:42
• 14No. 14, Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb [Live]07:01
• Total Runtime01:12:42

Info for Stations of the Cross (Live)

The legendary late American organist, composer and pedagogue McNeil Robinson was especially prized for his skill at improvisation: a rare discipline largely restricted to European masters of the organ. Many distinguished composers of his day—including Marcel Dupré, Ned Rorem, Lukas Foss and Vincent Persichetti—were his regular collaborators, providing thematic materials for his peerless improvisatory events.

Robinson himself regarded this revelatory March 21, 2006 performance of improvisations on the fourteen Stations of the Cross—a treasured ritual of sacred Christian liturgy—as the finest of his improvisatory efforts. His dying wish was to have it released to the musical public as the pinnacle of his storied legacy, hence this marvelous live recording of the event.

McNeil Robinson, organ

McNeil Robinson
studied in New York at the Juilliard School and in Spain at the University of Salamanca. He is organist of the Park Avenue Christian Church and the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City, and he is chairman of the organ departments at the Mannes College of Music and Manhattan School of Music. For two decades he served as organist and choirmaster at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in New York. Robinson is also active as a conductor and composer and has recorded for Decca and the Musical Heritage Society. He has had works commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the San Francisco Symphony, Musica Sacra, numerous American churches, and the American Guild of Organists, and has had his music performed at New York’s Lincoln Center, on network radio, and regularly in churches throughout the United States. He has also composed Hebrew liturgical settings.

Booklet for Stations of the Cross (Live)