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Contents:
DDD Total Time = 68:31
/ Recorded at Liebfrauenmünster, Ingolstadt, Germany One of the many casualties of the French Revolution was the organ. The work of the organ builder François-Henri Clicquot (1732-1790) and the music of Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749) represented something of a climax in the history of the organ in France but the Revolution saw the organ as anti-bourgeois, something inextricably linked to the two great enemies of the common people, the church and the aristocracy. Organs were destroyed or allowed to fall into decay, and those that survived were treated with scant respect. The rise of Napoleon and his armies encouraged composers for the organ to write music imitating the noises of gunfire and battle while in their improvisations French organists were prone to imitate the ubiquitous barrel organ, then all the rage in the streets of Paris. But while all this, at least musically, was just plain silly, it did open the eyes of one young organ-builder to the possibilities of combining all these effects into one homogenous instrument. Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1899) came from a long line of organ builders based in Montpellier. When Rossini visited the Cavaillé-Colls’ factory he suggested business might be better in Paris and in 1833 Aristide travelled to the city, tendered for and was awarded the contract for a new organ in the Basilica of St Denis, and remained settled in Paris for the remainder of his life. Completed in 1841 the St Denis instrument became the focal point for the revival of the organ’s fortunes in France and its builder inspired an entire generation of composers to write worthwhile music for the instrument. Just as Aristide Cavaillé-Coll was revitalising the French skill of organ construction, a Belgian organist and composer, Jaak Nikolaas Lemmens (1823-1881) came on the scene. While his own organ music was much in the typical post-Revolution style, full of peculiar sound effects and populist tunes (one of his most famous works being a dramatic portrayal of a Storm), he was responsible for introducing the organ music of Bach to French audiences. Lemmens had been a pupil of A F Hesse (1809-1863) who, in turn had been taught by C H Rinck (1770-1846), himself a pupil of one of J S Bach’s last pupils, J C Kittel (1732-1809), and it was a Bach recital he gave in 1860 which directly led to Guilmant devoting his life to the organ. Guilmant, who had been in the audience for the recital, asked Lemmens to hear him play and not only was the Belgian master so impressed that he took him on as a pupil, but Cavaillé-Coll, who was in the church at the time and overheard Guilmant’s performance, also realised the young man’s talents and began a friendship which lasted 40 years. Guilmant spent most of 1861 in Brussels studying with Lemmens and on 29th April 1862 performed, along with Franck and Saint-Saëns, at the inauguration of Cavaillé-Coll’s new organ in St Sulpice. Guilmant’s performance created something of a stir and when, in 1871, the post of organist at another great Parisian church, Sainte-Trinité, fell vacant, Cavaillé-Coll (who had been responsible for the organ there) had little difficulty in persuading the authorities to appoint Guilmant. He remained in that post for 30 years. Guilmant was the first French organist to become an international recitalist with tours throughout Europe and the USA. He was also a much sought-after teacher. In 1894 he co-founded the Schola Cantorum in Paris, was appointed Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire in 1896, and became President of the Guilmant Organ School in New York in 1898. He used his fame and influence to organise a series of concerts for organ and orchestra which ran for 20 years at the Trocadéro Palace in Paris and arranged several of his own solo organ compositions for use at these. Marche Elégiaque is the first of a set of four Pieces in different styles which were published in 1891. The version for organ, two oboes and strings is dated 9th September 1887. The Second Funeral March comes from the second volume of Guilmant’s extensive series of short pieces for harmonium L’Organiste Pratique. It is dated 16th May 1874. Guilmant also arranged two of his eight Organ Sonatas, renaming them Symphonies, for use in the Trocadéro concerts, but while his first Symphony simply adds an orchestra to the organ solo, the Second Symphony appears to have been composed originally as a work for organ and orchestra and only later revised as his eighth solo Sonata. It was composed in 1906 and dedicated to Louis Herbette, a Privy Councillor. Camille Saint-Saëns was just two years’ older than Guilmant but by the time of the inaugural recital at St Sulpice he was already established in one of the leading organist’s posts in Paris – the Madeleine – which he held from 1857 until 1876. He was much admired not just in Paris but by some of the greatest musical figures of the day. Rossini was astonished at his playing skills, Liszt, who heard him improvise at the Madeleine, declared him "the greatest organist in the world" while Berlioz, who at first said of the teenage Saint-Saëns that "he knows everything but lacks inexperience", was to become a close friend and even allowed the younger man to persuade him that Bach, whom up to then he had regarded merely as "an old fogy" was, in fact, one of the greatest of all composers. Posterity has tended to overlook Saint-Saëns’ place in the development of the organ but his was a significant contribution to the instrument’s repertoire and he, like Guilmant, also made use of the organ in ensembles with small chamber groups or full orchestra. The Serenade in E flat was originally composed in 1866 for piano, organ, violin and viola (or cello) and in 1868 arranged as an orchestral piece. The work is dedicated to "Madame la Princesse Mathilde". Also in 1868 Saint-Saëns composed his Romance in B flat for violin, piano (or harp) and harmonium. In 1876 Saint-Saëns relinquished his post at the Madeleine to be succeeded, the following year, by Théodore Dubois – another organist much admired by Liszt. Dubois had been maître de chapelle at the Madeleine for eight years having previously held the equivalent post at St Clotilde (where César Franck was organist). It was at St Clotilde that Dubois first displayed his special gifts as a composer with an oratorio Les Sept Paroles du Christ in 1867. His real interest was in writing for the theatre, his first serious attempt at a composition being an opera which he wrote in 1863 while a student in Rome, but he was never able to procure a permanent position with any of the leading Paris theatres and although three of his operas were staged in Paris during the 1870s and 1880s, he is best remembered today as a teacher (he was Director of the Paris Conservatoire from 1896 until 1905) and a composer of religious and organ music. He wrote no less than 88 solo organ works as well as several for organ and other instruments. The Marche Nuptial for violin and piano or harp (the organ part is marked "ad libitum") was composed in 1892 for the marriage of a pupil, Beauvois Devaux. Charles Gounod, possibly the most important French opera composer of the 19th century, wrote an enormous amount of sacred music, including no less than 17 settings of the Mass. His love of sacred music was fired by the 16th century polyphonic music he had heard whilst living in Rome. In 1843 he visited Leipzig where he was entertained by Mendelssohn playing Bach on the organ of St Thomas’s church, but although he was profoundly moved by this Gounod never really took to the instrument and appears to have written just two original compositions for the organ. He did, however, use it extensively in his sacred music, arranged a number of his orchestral and chamber works for either the pedal piano or the organ, and composed a number of pieces for ensembles including the organ. One such is the Hymn to St Cecilia composed in 1865 and later arranged for various instrumental ensembles and, in 1878, as his vocal Ave Verum. Originally, however, the work exists in two versions, one for solo violin, harps, double bass, wind and timpani and the other, recorded here, for violin, organ and piano. Gounod dedicated it to the French violinist Delphin Alard (best remembered today as the teacher of Pablo Sarasate) who gave the first performance of the work on the famous "Messiah" Stradivarius violin which had been a gift from his extremely wealthy father. Page revised 30.06.03 |
