Search - Guilmant, Chaisemartin :: Organ Works 2

Beautiful and Evocative

Avid Reader | Franklin, Tn | 03/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have slowly come around to the holistic method of review, looking at the entire picture instead of selecting just one aspect to criticize or praise. The CD is part of a series of the complete organ music of Alexander Guilmant performed on historic organs of Europe.



As anyone who is familiar with the French school of the late 19th century, the music was written with the magnificent organs of Aristide Cavaille-Coll, those towering symphonic instruments. As such, they only sound "right" when performed on these. Even those built on the builder's principles (as is the case of the new organ at the Basilka in Cologne) cannot duplicate the color and depth on the originals. With that in mind, I was happy to note that this was recorded on the organ at St-Sulpice in Paris. It is not just the thunderous movements that benefit but the quieter ones with all their "tones" and "breathiness".



The recording is superb, especially the Fourth and the Grand Choir which looks forward to its namesake presented with the Fifth and Sixth Sonatas. Guilmant could never bring himself to break out of his conservative training and sensibilities - the chromaticism of Vierne actually upset him. Probably the closest he came were the Grand Choirs and Sixth Sonata particularly in his use of the pedal.



Still these are works of incredible beauty and virtuosity. Ms. Chaisemartin attacks each piece with a steady hand (and foot I should add) in a manner that seems authentic to the period and the music. The Fourth Symphony is compact and cyclic, a joyful, rollicking, ascending scale features prominently in the outer sections. A variation of that same scale returns in the mighty Grand Choral. The rest of the CD...an oboe is heard in the 2nd Meditation, mystical and eerie then the quite reasonable Second Sonata (old style). Great album to won and hear."