Awesome Organ

BEST LOVED

WOLFGANG RÜBSAM 8.578179 classical organ music Awesome Organ recognise in Buxtehude’s music many 14 Widor: Symphony No. 5 in F minor, Best loved classical organ music of the elements of the ‘praeludium’ Op. 42, No. 1 – III. Toccata – Allegro style that Bach would perfect. The F How many thousands of newly-wed 1 (1685–1750) 7 Charles-Marie WIDOR (1844–1937) major Prelude shows the lighter side couples have been accompanied Toccata and Fugue in D minor, 2:53 Organ Symphony No.1 in C minor, 8:20 of Buxtehude’s musical character with down the aisle by the final movement BWV 565 – Toccata Op. 13, No.1: V. Marche Pontificale a whimsical Fugue subject giving of Widor’s fifthOrgan Symphony? This Bertalan Hock • Wolfgang Rübsam (8.553859) Robert Delcamp (8.570310) the performer plenty of opportunity iconically famous work is a prime 2 Johann Sebastian BACH 8 Georg BÖHM (1661–1733) for antiphonal effects using different example of the French organ toccata Toccata and Fugue in D minor, 7:09 Prelude and Fugue in C major 5:09 divisions of the organ. form: an exuberant repeating pattern BWV 565 – Fugue Christiaan Teeuwsen (8.555857) in the manuals accompanies a bold Bertalan Hock • Wolfgang Rübsam (8.553859) 13 Dupré: Variations sur un Noël, Op. 20 – melodic line played in the pedals; a 9 Johann PACHELBEL (1653–1706) Theme and Variations I to X quieter development section follows 3 (1685–1759) Toccata in E minor 1:49 In 1906, Widor appointed a new before the original material returns Organ in B flat major, 5:25 Wolfgang Rübsam (8.554380) assistant at Saint-Sulpice, the precociously with even more elaborate manual Op. 4, No. 6 – I. Andante allegro 10 Jehan ALAIN (1911–1940) talented 20-year-old Marcel Dupré, figurations. In musical terms, a relatively Bradley Creswick • Simon Lindley Northern (8.553835) Litanies, AWV 100 4:45 who would later succeed his mentor simple format, but one that Widor uses Eric Lebrun (8.553632) in 1934, alongside work at the Paris to dazzling effect. 4 Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847) Conservatoire. Dupré was a virtuoso 11 Eugène GIGOUT (1844–1925) Organ Sonata No. 4 in B flat major, 3:31 Scherzo (Dix Pièces, No. 8) 4:56 performer, a renowned teacher and Peter Siepmann Op. 65 – I. Allegro con brio Andrew Lucas (8.550955) hugely inventive composer. His set of © Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd Stephen Tharp (8.553583) variations on the famous traditional 12 Dieterich BUXTEHUDE (1637–1707) 5 (1899–1963) French tune Noël nouvelet serve as a Prelude in F major, BuxWV 145 7:44 good example of this invention, with in G minor – 2:10 Julia Brown (8.570311) VI. Tempo de l’Allegro initial each variation exploring different colours Jean-Claude Casadesus 13 Marcel DUPRÉ (1886–1971) of the organ, a variety of contrapuntal Elisabeth Chojnacka • Philippe Lefebvre Variations sur un Noël, Op. 20 – 11:27 textures, and ingenious harmonisations. Lille National Orchestra (8.554241) Theme and Variations I to X Ji-Yoen Choi (8.555367) 6 Francis POULENC Organ Concerto in G minor – 2:41 14 Charles-Marie WIDOR VII. Tempo Introduction. Largo Symphony No. 5 in F minor, 6:14 Jean-Claude Casadesus Op. 42, No.1 – III. Toccata: Allegro Elisabeth Chojnacka • Philippe Lefebvre Robert Delcamp (8.570310) Lille National Orchestra (8.554241)

Total Timing: 74:57

8.578179 2 7 8.578179 stirring chordal passages introduce a tornado, flattening everything is its way’ Awesome Organ carefully constructed fugue ending with adding – of this piece – that ‘if you get Best loved classical organ music a dramatic toccata-like coda. to the end without feeling exhausted you have neither understood nor played it as Whether referring to the huge, glistening addressing a varied selection of pipe ranks – 9 Pachelbel: Toccata in E minor I would want it’! instrument of several thousand pipes that graces some wooden, some metal, some using reeds, Pachelbel was an exponent of the South the rood screen of a cathedral, or to the ‘mighty and all enclosed in magnificent casework. The German school of organ composition. 11 Gigout: Scherzo (Dix Pièces, No. 8) Wurlitzer’ rising out of the stage at Blackpool complexity of the soundboards and actions that The instruments in this tradition, Throughout almost all of Widor’s 64 Tower, or to a compact set of table top bellows allow a single manual to control a large number influenced by their Italian counterparts, year tenure at Saint-Suplice, on the and pipes attached to a single keyboard of just of different ranks of pipes in any combination were typically rather smaller than those other side of the Seine, Eugène Gigout an octave in length, we use the same term: organ. is staggering, as anyone who has ever had the found further north, often with a less presided over the newly built organ at It is understandable, then, that the etymological privilege of looking inside a mechanical (or well-stocked pedal division, and so the church of Saint-Augustin. Alongside root of the word is as widely encompassing ‘tracker’) action instrument will know. the writing is often focussed more on his church work, he was also professor as the instruments it describes: the old English An organist has the unique privilege of elaborate manual work. The E minor of organ and then director of the Paris organe and old French orgene meaning, acting not just as a faithful recounter of the Toccata is one of several Pachelbel Conservatoire. As a composer, his work simply, ‘musical instrument’. notes on the page, but also as an orchestrator, wrote in this style. is entirely confined to organ music and The earliest notated organ music (c. 1360, deciding which of the organ’s range of timbres the Dix Pièces, first published in 1890, England) is likely to have been played on a (which will be unique to every instrument, if 10 Alain: Litanies, AWV 100 is a varied collection of (mostly short) ‘positive organ’ (so-called because, in contrast to with a number of generally common shared Alain belongs to that generation of works. The Scherzo is a light-hearted their small, handheld forebears, these instruments conventions) to use during the course of any composers whose lives were cut tragically and energetic , with the were large enough to require depositing given piece. The choice may be specified by short by the Second World War. Litanies composer asking for frequent changes in one place). Positive organs typically had a the composer (French music from the Baroque was written in 1937 when Alain was 26 of manual to create a series of engaging single keyboard (or ‘manual’), with each key era is particularly prescriptive in this regard), years old. Just three years later, he was echo effects. operating a single wooden pipe or, in some guided by historical convention, or may be left killed in action. His most famous work cases, a group of pipes usually tuned in unison, entirely to the performer’s discretion. begins with a statement of a plainsong- 12 Buxtehude: Prelude in F major, fifths or octaves. In 19th-century France, this variety of like melody, evoking a sense of ritual and BuxWV 145 By the time the great J.S. Bach was writing timbre became particularly well developed, of prayer. It soon becomes apparent that Bach famously walked two hundred his extraordinary corpus of in with the mechanics of organ building evolving this is not a meditative prayer, however, miles from Arnstadt to Lübeck to hear early 18th-century Germany, the instruments so as to enable ever greater power and tonal indeed Alain himself wrote that ‘prayer Dietrich Buxtehude play the organ. A had blossomed into those of two or three variety. The Cavaillé-Coll organ over which is not a lament but a devastating major influence on the great master, we manuals plus pedalboard, with each division Charles-Marie Widor presided at Saint-Suplice

8.578179 6 3 8.578179 in Paris (and which is largely unchanged today) 1 – 2 Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, 4 Mendelssohn: Organ Sonata No. 4 7 Widor: Organ Symphony No. 1 has five manuals, pedalboard and nearly BWV 565 in B flat major, Op. 65 – in C minor, Op. 13, No.1 – seven thousand pipes. Innovations such as As perhaps the most famous piece of I. Allegro con brio V. Marche Pontificale the Barker lever and tubular-pneumatic action organ music ever written, it is ironic that Mendelssohn was devoted to the music of Charles-Marie Widor presided at enabled a large number of ranks to be played the attribution of this work to Bach is the Bach, and indeed did much to resurrect the iconic organ at Saint-Sulpice in simultaneously without creating an unfeasibly source of more than a little controversy. public interest in it. A superb organist Paris for 64 years. The concept of a heavy key action. Some divisions were enclosed With its improvisatory flourishes and himself (with a particularly renowned symphony for organ was an invention within expression boxes, enabling particularly abrupt contrasts, the Toccata owes much pedal technique), Mendelssohn’s devotion of the French Romantic school of organ fine-grained dynamic control. to the showy stylus phantasticus of the to the Baroque repertoire is clear in his six composition (driven by composers The advent of electricity heralded yet North German tradition. The Fugue is Organ Sonatas, with the flowing lines of such as Franck and Guilmant), and more development and innovation. With the a more formally structured affair but this opening movement of the B flat major aimed to showcase the rich spectrum long, complicated labyrinth of wooden levers with a few unusual features such as the Sonata also showing Mendelssohn’s more of timbres and colours produced by that relayed the press of a key to the foot of solo pedal statement of the subject and pianistic tendencies. these large instruments. The conclusion a row of pipes now replaceable by an electro- the multi-sectional coda that closes this of Widor’s firstOrgan Symphony is a magnetic pulse, an hitherto unimaginable dramatic work. Poulenc: grand march reminiscent of a lavish level of flexibility in how the divisions of the 5 Organ Concerto in G minor – liturgical procession. organ were physically arranged was made 3 Handel: Organ Concerto in B flat major, VI. Tempo de l’Allegro initial possible. The organ console could also now Op. 4, No. 6 – I. Andante allegro 6 Organ Concerto in G minor – 8 Böhm: Prelude and Fugue in C major be separated from the pipes, sometimes at Handel wrote his organ to VII. Tempo Introduction. Largo Georg Böhm was organist at the considerable distances. act as incidental music in performances Poulenc was also a devotee of Bach, Johanniskirche in Lüneburg in Northern With a range of pitch that encompasses of his oratorios in London, and they and his Organ Concerto is an engaging Germany between 1698 and 1733, the entire spectrum of human hearing, a variety were thus designed to be played on fusion of the Baroque with Poulenc’s during which time he encountered the of colour far surpassing that of any other a small instrument brought into the trademark whimsy and harmonic young J.S. Bach. Böhm’s music remained (acoustic) instrument, the ability to drown out theatre. Performed between acts of the invention. Written at a time when the a significant influence on the great an entire symphony orchestra, or to make the 1736 premiere of Alexander’s Feast, composer’s Catholic faith was beginning master, with the C major Prelude and ground shake with an almost inaudible rumble, the buoyant B flat major Concerto was to re-emerge, this Concerto was his Fugue showing a number of hallmarks is it any wonder that Mozart (and Machaut in fact originally written for harp, but first work for organ, and sets the solo of the style that Bach would later perfect: before him) referred to the organ as ‘the King was nonetheless included by the first instrument against the somewhat unusual improvisatory flourishes (including an of Instruments’? publisher of the Op. 4 Organ Concertos. combination of strings and timpani. extended pedal solo) alternating with

8.578179 4 5 8.578179