Louis VIERNE (1870-1937)
Messe solennelle, Op. 16 (1899) [21:09]
Tantum ergo [4:00]
Ave Maria [1:58]
Charles-Marie WIDOR (1844-1937)
Messe à deux chœurs et deux orgues, Op. 36 (1878) [11:14]
Tantum ergo, Op. 18/1 (1874) [1:24]
Psaume 83, Op. 23/1 (1876) [5:09]
Tu es Petrus, Op. 23/2 (1876) [2:56]
Surrexit a mortuis, Op. 23/3 (1876) [3:39]
Vincent Boucher, Jonathan Oldengarm (organs)
Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal
Les Chantres Musiciens/Gilbert Patenaude
rec. 19-21 February 2015, St Joseph’s Oratory, Mount Royal, Montreal,
Canada
Reviewed as a 24/96 download from eClassical.com
Pdf booklet does not include sung texts
ATMA CLASSIQUE ACD22718 [51:29]
If you associate Vierne and Widor just with solo organ works
it may come as a surprise to discover they wrote a number of religious pieces
for organ and choir as well. Granted, the latter may seem relatively obscure
by comparison but they’re worth getting to know. ATMA Classique are
still quite new to me, but their recent Festival
au grand-orgue – featuring the talented Dom Richard Gagné –
proved to be a real treat. The choirs on this new album, so ably directed
by Gilbert Patenaude, are both well established and well regarded. As for
Vincent Boucher, appointed titular organist of St Joseph's Oratory in February
2015, this is his first recording in that role. The sanctuary's second organ
is played here by Jonathan Oldengarm.
Charles-Marie Widor and the influential organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll
were part of another French revolution, this time in the late nineteenth century,
in which the king of instruments was restored to its rightful place as a serious
musical force. That included new or rebuilt organs and an entirely different
style of playing. In 1870 Widor replaced Louis Lefébure-Wély (1817-1869) as
titulaire of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, which also boasted what many regard
as Cavaillé-Coll's finest instrument. The young Louis Vierne was Widor's assistant
there from 1892 to 1900.
Vierne wrote his Messe solennelle for Saint-Sulpice, where it was
premiered in December 1901. Scored for choir and two organs it follows the
usual Mass format but – like Widor’s Op. 36 – it omits the
Credo. I'm delighted to report that Gilbert Patenaude leads his musicians
in a performance that’s both grand and intimate. They’re recorded
in a warm, fairly reverberant acoustic with the voices atmospherically distant.
As for St Joseph's newly restored 5,811-pipe Beckerath organ it’s wonderfully
robust, with a firm, rolling bass. The Kyrie, so cleanly articulated,
is lovely and there’s a radiance to the singing that’s very impressive
indeed.
The rest of the Mass is just as appealing. The Gloria may seem a
tad unwieldy at times, but the organ part is glorious. The Sanctus
has a lovely underlying barcarolle-like rhythm that’s well caught by
the ATMA engineers. The more rarefied Benedictus, which reprises
those beguiling rhythms, ends with satisfying weight and splendour. As for
the Agnus Dei, it emerges with remarkable transparency, before ending
with a heart-piercing sense of repose. Vierne’s two Op. 18 motets are
just as beautifully presented; the Tantum ergo has inwardness aplenty,
and the Ave Maria is sung with an artless fervour that’s most
affecting.
There’s another recording of an almost identical programme – plus
Marcel Dupré's Quatre Motets, Op. 9 – with the Westminster
Cathedral Choir conducted by James O’Donnell (Hyperion CDA66898). Predictably
this is on a much grander scale, with a truly thunderous organ and that clear,
very English choral sound. There’s a much greater sense of space here
– it’s Westminster Cathedral, after all – with voices and
organs placed in a wide, deep soundstage. O’Donnell and his forces,
quite brightly recorded, find sharper contrasts in the Mass than Patenaude
and his musicians do. That said, the latter’s performance is more personal
– there's more light, shade and colour, too – and that's
very refreshing. Ditto the two Op. 18 motets, which have a plangent loveliness
in Montreal that’s missing in London.
Broadly speaking, the same observations apply to the Widor works, although
the Westminster performance of the Mass emerges with a thrilling heft that’s
hard to beat. Both this and the less overt Montreal approach seem to ‘work’,
but I suspect your choice of recording will depend on your preferred scale
and vocal style. I’m mildly allergic to the very clean, almost white
sound of English cathedral choirs, the boys especially; by contrast,the Quebec
singers have a European warmth, a roundness of tone, that’s much more
to my taste. Also, one could argue that O'Donnell, his musicians, and the
Hyperion engineers emphasise the music's ceremonial aspects; by contrast Patenaude
and the ATMA team really bring out its devotional character.
Warmly communicative performances in very decent sound; well worth hearing.
Dan Morgan
twitter.com/mahlerei
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