Jean Langlais Remembered
Trials and Joys ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !CHAPTER!10! !!Trials!and!Joys!(197021984)! The composer and concert performer between baroque and modernism The American tours represented only one facet, although certainly glorious, of Jean Langlais' concert career. Europe also sought and celebrated his concerts, and he performed in Great Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, in Switzerland, Italy and Scandinavia. These few headlines suggest the responses: "WONDERBAATLIJK ORGELSPEL VAN JEAN LANGLAIS IN GOUDA" ("Marvellous Recital by Jean Langlais in Gouda) Gerderlander, Gouda (The Netherlands), July 18, 1969. "A GREAT MASTER AT THE KEYS" Derek Robinson, Bristol (England), June 22, 1971. "OVATIONEN FUR GROSSEN MUSIKER" ("Ovation for a Great Musician") Neue Aachener Zeitung, Aix-la-Chapelle (Germany), December 11, 1972. True to his own aesthetic choices and sailing against the tide of current fashions, Langlais continued to honor, with brilliance, the music of his predecessors in Sainte-Clotilde, whose various anniversaries he celebrated with brilliance: in 1970, the centenary of Tournemire, and two years later, the 150th anniversary of Franck's birth. For the latter occasion, he played Franck’s complete Douze Pièces for organ in two concerts at Sainte-Clotilde, April 26 and May 3, 1972. As Langlais’ international reputation grew, foreigners thronged around him and his popularity in Europe as well as in America was at its zenith. Nevertheless, it was not until April 15, 1970 that his first organ recital devoted solely to his work took place--at St. Severin Church in Paris, organized by the French Association for the Protection of the Ancient Organ (A.F.S.O.A, created in 1967).
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