Search - Louis James Alfred Lefebure-Wely, Joris Verdin :: 3 Suites for Harmonicorde

Charming, Remarkable, and Rare...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 07/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

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Even rarer than the harmonium is the harmonicorde. The harmonium--of which Mustel in Paris is the most famous builder--is a wind and reed keyboard instrument, about the size and shape of a large upright piano, likened to an huge accordion.



In competition with Mustel, the Parisian firm of Debain also produced harmoniums. This commercial and aesthetic competition stimulated the builders to include special features in their instruments. Mustel combined the hammer and metal plate mechanism of the celeste (which the firm also produced) into their harmoniums.



Debain countered with the inclusion of hammers and strings (like a piano) into its instruments. The result is the hybrid harmonicorde, which sounds like a piano and harmonium playing simultaneously.



The instrument used in this recording is an Harmonicorde DEBAIN of 1880.



L.-J.-A. Lefébure-Wély (1817-69) was a native Parisian who flourished during the Second Empire and competed for audiences with Offenbach Jacques Offenbach: Piano Works, Vol. 1 .



In the 1840s and '50s, Lefébure-Wély worked closely with Cavaillé-Coll in the latter's development of the French Romantic organ. Lefébure-Wély would always give the première concert performance on Cavaillé-Coll's newly constructed instruments where (in Ben van Oosten's words), "Lefébure's colourful and imaginative improvisations demonstrated the potential of each organ to the greatest possible effect." Ambroise Thomas (president of the Paris Conservatoire) at Wély's funeral spoke of Wély's "marvellous execution, profound science of registration, exquisite choice and happy mixture of diverse timbres, inexhaustible variety of effects and sonorities and beautiful improvisations in which charm, elegance, clarity, and grandeur were found united." Lefébure-Wély: Organ Works



These lovely Suites for harmonicorde feature delightful characteristic pieces such as the pastorale, reverie, invocation, tarentelle, air de ballet, espangole, romance, and provençale. This charming, beautiful music is incredibly uplifting.



For aficianadoes and connoisseurs only.

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