Guild records have
released an exceptionally fine recording
of French organ music which embraces
three generations of composers. This
spans a period of some seventy years,
ranging mainly from the late-romanticism
of the early 1900s to the very different
sound-world of the 1960s.
Guy Ropartz and Louis
Vierne, were both pupils of César
Franck. Marcel Dupré was a protégé
of Vierne. Jean Langlais, Gaston Litaize
and Olivier Messiaen were pupils of
Dupré and all three entered Dupré’s
Organ Class at the Paris Conservatoire
in 1927. As fate would have it, they
all died within the space of a few months,
in 1991-92. By this time Messiaen had
achieved word-wide recognition and Langlais
was gaining acclaim as the successor
of Franck and Tournemire at the Basilica
of Sainte-Clotilde.
Langlais and Litaize
were both blind (as was Vierne) and
they both benefited from the inspiring
musical education provided by the Institut
des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris. After
his studies with Dupré, Langlais
joined the Composition Class of Paul
Dukas, who told him that he was "a
born composer."
The Suite Brève
(1947) was one of the first works
which Langlais published as Organiste
du Grande Orgue de la Basilique Ste
Clotilde, soon after his appointment
late in 1945. The freshness and individuality
of the music won many friends in France
and America but provoked a more negative
reaction from conservative British church
circles. Langlais’s chant-based Incantation
pour un jour Saint (1949) was inspired
by the ancient liturgy of the Easter
Vigil, which marks the first celebration
of the resurrection of Christ during
the night preceding Easter Sunday.
Olivier Messiaen was
a complex and original thinker who frequently
ventured into foreign and often exotic
worlds of musical expression, far removed
from those in which his contemporaries
moved. The manuscript of Messiaen’s
Offrande au Saint Sacrement was
discovered among his papers by his widow
after his death. This piece, which is
thought to be an early work, was published
as recently as 2001.
Gaston Litaize has
never acquired a worldwide reputation
on quite the same scale as Messiaen
or Langlais, but he was a distinguished
teacher and a great performing artist
with an encyclopaedic repertoire. Two
of his works in this programme are concert
pieces, taken from a set of Douze
Pièces composed at various
times during the 1930s, and published
in 1939. The feather-light Scherzo
(1932) is a worthy successor to the
French tradition of concert scherzos
established in the 19th century by Gigout
and Widor, and then developed by Louis
Vierne and Maurice Duruflé. The
Lied of (1934) is a deeply-felt
and beautifully-proportioned song-without-words.
Langlais’s spectacular
Evocation was composed in 1964
as part of a suite entitled Homage
to Rameau, which was commissioned
by the French Minister of Fine Arts
in commemoration of the 200th anniversary
of the death of Rameau. Incidentally,
the initial letters of the titles of
the six movements form an acrostic which
spells out Rameau’s name. Langlais gives
no clue as to exactly what is being
evoked in this piece, but it is undeniably
one of his most successful and spectacular
concert works.
The music of Guy Ropartz
comes from a very different world. After
his studies with Massenet and Franck,
Ropartz left Paris and spent the whole
of his long life fostering the musical
life of provincial France. He was Director
of the Conservatories at Nancy and then
at Strasbourg. Ropartz was the only
one of these six composers here who
was not a professional organist. His
organ music forms just a small part
of his prolific output as a composer.
His elegiac Prélude funèbre
(1896) is a memorable essay in the
post-Franck style, the poignant melody
and intricate accompaniment recalling
the introspective intensity of Franck’s
own Prière.
Louis Vierne was the
great romantic among the French organist/composers
of his generation. Vierne was blind
and was Organist of the Cathedral of
Notre-Dame for nearly forty years. He
died there on the organ-bench during
a recital in 1937. At a 1928 recording
session at the Notre-Dame Cathedral,
Vierne performed works of J.S. Bach
and also set down Three Improvisations
which Maurice
Duruflé was to later transcribe
into written notation.
Marcel Dupré
forms the link between the generations
in this programme. Ambitious and single-minded
in the pursuit of his artistic ideals,
Dupré was a remarkable character;
as Professor at the Paris Conservatoire,
organist of Saint-Sulpice, tireless
international concert artist, and prolific
composer, he dominated the French organ
world of his time. Described as a symphonic
poem, Evocation was written in
memory of his father. Composed in 1944
in occupied France in the middle of
the second world war, at a time of deep
personal sorrow, this music mixes nostalgia,
anger and defiance into a potent brew.
British organist Colin
Walsh has given numerous recitals in
many countries throughout the world
and is steadily building an excellent
reputation for himself. Walsh who has
studied with Simon Preston and the composer/organist
Jean Langlais has met Olivier Messiaen
and is a celebrated interpreter of 20th
century French repertoire.
This is an outstanding
recital and the soloist is a splendid
advocate for these twentieth century
French works. The more substantial scores
such as Langlais’s Suite Brève
and Evocation are performed
with tremendous conviction, substantial
authority and convey a most compelling
atmosphere. Shorter works such as Litaize’s
Scherzo, Lied and Epiphanie
are played with total sureness and
with real depth in what is a most successful
and well planned recital. I must
single out Vierne’s Three Improvisations
for special praise where the soloist’s
empathy with the score is breathtaking
and emotionally compelling.
The recording of the
1898 ‘Father Willis’ organ of Lincoln
Cathedral is of the highest quality
and Guild are to be congratulated on
a release that is hard to fault.
Michael Cookson
Colin Walsh (organ of Lincoln Cathedral)
