By Jonathan Blumhofer

Paul Jacobs, the day’s reigning organ virtuoso, has assayed a fascinating assortment of Americana that showcases the King of Instruments against an orchestra.

The King of Instruments hardly needs to be showcased against an orchestra: given the range and combination of notes and colors it can create, the organ is, in fact, an orchestra unto itself. Even so, there’s a remarkable, if small, body of concertante works for that combination and, occasionally, it makes its way to the concert hall and disc. Paul Jacobs, the day’s reigning organ virtuoso, knows it well and he’s assayed a fascinating assortment of Americana on his latest release for Naxos.

Its single longest item (by about a minute) is Horatio Parker’s Organ Concerto, a somewhat digressive, 20-minute-long score from 1902 that is also the composer’s most substantial instrumental work. Nowadays best known for being Charles Ives’s reactionary teacher at Yale, Parker was a major figure in the country’s fin de siècle musical culture.

Unsurprisingly, given the musical values of the day, the Organ Concerto now reads rather like a stern, Germanic treatise. The Andante section that makes up the latter half of its first movement functions as little more than a placeholder. Parker’s tendency to land on sonorities and just sit there undercuts the Concerto’s sense of momentum. His contrapuntal writing is predictably strong, though there’s a dutiful quality to parts of the finale.

That said, the central Andante is a charmer, just the sort of thing Amy Beach might have written. The variety of contexts in which the organ is showcased (as leading voice and orchestral accompanist, especially) are striking. And the pedal work in the last movement dazzles, as does its big, blazing coda – one can only imagine the fun Jacobs was having navigating all of it.

Of course, one can hear some of the former, too. Jacobs’ account of this music is entirely assured and brilliant. Some anemic string textures aside, so are the accompaniments of the Nashville Symphony, which is led by music director Giancarlo Guerrero.

The album’s other big number is Christopher Rouse’s Organ Concerto, heard in its premiere recording. Written for Jacobs in 2015, it’s roughly the same duration as the Parker, though inhabiting an entirely different musical world.

Rouse, who died in 2019, was one of his generation’s most bracing composers. His music never lacked for personality, and this effort certainly doesn’t, even though it’s an open question whether or not the through-composed, three-movement architecture is necessary or correct. There is, for all the differences between the outer pair – the carnival-esque colors of the opening Allegro, the jaunty counterpoint and vigorous footwork in the finale – a certain sameness of tone that’s not set off enough by the sometimes meditative, sometimes gnarly Lento that falls in between.

Regardless, Rouse’s integration of the organ into the orchestral fabric, his fusion of lyricism and spikiness, and his ear-catching instrumental combinations (there’s a wild passage for bass clarinet and organ in the finale) go a long way to assuage any doubts about the larger work. That and, again, Jacobs’ mighty rendition of his part.

Rounding out the disc are shorter selections by Wayne Oquin and Ives.

Jacobs’ performance of Ives’ Variations on “America” offers just about everything you could ask for. It’s raucous and anarchic, yes (the “Polonaise” is a hoot), but also steeped in nobility and sincerity. Rarely does the final variation exhibit the swaggering majesty it does under Jacobs’ hands and feet.

For its part, Oquin’s Resilience offers a study in a kind of celebratory call-and-response. Music of strong variety – sometimes the organ and orchestra are deeply at odds, at others they seem to be the best of mates – bright colors, and lots of energy, it’s a showpiece that, between Jacobs and the Nashville players, manages to sound both flashy and substantive at once.

Jonathan Blumhofer is a composer and violist who has been active in the greater Boston area since 2004. His music has received numerous awards and been performed by various ensembles, including the American Composers Orchestra, Kiev Philharmonic, Camerata Chicago, Xanthos Ensemble, and Juventas New Music Group. Since receiving his doctorate from Boston University in 2010, Jon has taught at Clark University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and online for the University of Phoenix, in addition to writing music criticism for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.