Search - Charles Tournemire, Lise Boucher :: Charles Tournemire: Douze Préludes-Poèmes

The Gold Standard for Rare Art...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 10/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

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This incredible disc--I have to start with the exquisite Klimt cover-art, Poppy Field (1907)--this beautiful disc of rare esoteric music was issued in 2004 on a small Canadian label.



It features the remarkable piano set of 12 Poetic Preludes (1932) by the little known Frenchman Charles Tournemire--student of Widor and Franck, protégé of Vierne and Pierné.



Tournemire was a very mystical artist who, like Bruckner (for example), was deeply introspective and held the Romish Rite closely to his mind and heart. Tournemire combined the intense, lush late-Romaticism of Franck with the innovations of Debussy--with the additional "Ralliement" sensibility (the resurgence of interest in Romish mysticism in the twilight years of the 19th Century and the early years of the 20th Century)--which resulted in a very esoteric art suggestive of meditation, prayer, and mysticism amid the traditional dichotomy of Christian asceticism versus mundane sensuality.



Withal, the set of 12 Poetic Preludes represents a symbolic vision of humankind's progress towards the Infinite and the Divine. Each poetic prelude is a substantial piano piece running on average ~:05-06mns duration. And they are entitled:



i Birth of the Human Being

ii Newborn

iii Infancy

iv Adolescence

v Human Passions

vi Great Troubles

vii Marriage

viii Approach of Death-Calming Measures

ix Meditation on the Father

x Meditation on the Son

xi Meditation on the Spirit

xii Glorification of the Trinity



Zounds!--deep stuff indeed.



See too: Tournemire: Musique de chambre . Vierne: Works for Piano .

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