Description
Title: Organ Music 1
Artist: Alessandro Perin
Label: Brilliant Classics
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 5028421956442
Genre: Classical
Release Date: 2021-04-23
Number of Discs: 1
The output of Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) is so vast and various that only scholars and fellow organists can expect to grasp it”s scale. Most listeners require a discerning ear to pull out some of the many highlights. The Italian organist Alessandro Perin has done so here, without confining himself to Dupré”s ”greatest hits”, the characteristic pile-ups of chorale harmonies and torrents of semiquavers in toccatas and variations that find their natural home on the instruments of Cavaille-Coll as an apotheosis of the French Gothic organ style. Instead, Perin”s selection is more diverse. It begins with the Suite Op.39: four pieces originally written as part of a collection of 12 Studies, though they bear no trace of didacticism. Rather, there is a Lisztian quality of invention to their virtuosity, from the glittering cascades of the opening Allegro agitato to the driving counterpoint of the finale. The four settings of the Ave maris stella chant are progressively more ornate, from a simple statement of the chant over a walking bass, through an intricate Bachian chorale prelude, to a final, brilliant toccata. The ”old Christmas carol” featured in Op.20 variations is known in English as Now the green blade riseth: in one of his most justly celebrated works, Dupré treats the theme to a dazzling array of transformations, stretching the organist”s technique to the limit. At the height of the Second World War, Dupré composed the Evocation in memory of his father, and gave it”s first performance at the Cathedral in Rouen in 1941. Exactly what is being evoked is left to the listener to decide, though only the tender second-movement elegy casts it”s gaze back with fondness; the strident progress of the first movement seems to reflect the troubled times, and the finale has it”s own struggles to overcome in a final blaze of C major triumph.
Tracks:
1.1 Suite in F minor Op. 39~Allegro agitato
1.2 Suite in F minor Op. 39~Cantabile
1.3 Suite in F minor Op. 39~Scherzando
1.4 Suite in F minor Op. 39~Finale
1.5 4 Verses on the hymne “”Ave Maris Stella”” From “”15 Versets sur les Vêpres du commun des fêtes de la Sainte Vierge”” Op. 18~I. When the Salutation Gabriel Had Spoken
1.6 4 Verses on the hymne “”Ave Maris Stella”” From “”15 Versets sur les Vêpres du commun des fêtes de la Sainte Vierge”” Op. 18~II. Jesus Tender Mother, Make Thy Supplication
1.7 4 Verses on the hymne “”Ave Maris Stella”” From “”15 Versets sur les Vêpres du commun des fêtes de la Sainte Vierge”” Op. 18~III. So Now as We Journey, Aid Our Weak Endeavor
1.8 4 Verses on the hymne “”Ave Maris Stella”” From “”15 Versets sur les Vêpres du commun des fêtes de la Sainte Vierge”” Op. 18~IV. Amen (Finale)
1.9 7 Pièces Op. 27~IV. Carillon
1.10 Variations sur un vieux Noël in D minor Op. 20 (Variations on a Noël)
1.11 Évocation Op. 37 Poème symphonique~Moderato
1.12 Évocation Op. 37 Poème symphonique~Adagio con tenerezza
1.13 Évocation Op. 37 Poème symphonique~Allegro deciso
