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Recordings Of Vierne's Pieces De Fantasie


Colin Harvey

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Would anyone recommend any recordings of Vierne's Pieces de Fantasie? I've heard a few of the pieces in performance but would I'd like to get a fuller idea of what they're like.

Suggestions please....

 

My first choice would always be Ben van Oosten at the big Rouen Cavaillé-Coll. His techinque is superior, he is imaginative, and he knows how to treat that organ. The recording was done in 1998 by Dabringhaus & Grimm (2 CDs, MDG 316 0847-2).

 

Then there is a two-CD set of the pieces at Motette, played by Bernhard Buttman at an impressive three-manual, 80-stop 1998 Klais in Bochum. The acoustics are a bit less gerenous here, since the location is the concert hall and auditorium maximum of the Ruhr University. Buttmann plays very well also, and some people claim to have become tired of hearing the Rouen organ again and again in recordings. To them, I can recommend this set.

 

There are more sets on the market, but these I know best, and I can recommend them with no drawbacks at all.

 

Best,

Friedrich

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My first choice would always be Ben van Oosten at the big Rouen Cavaillé-Coll. His techinque is superior, he is imaginative, and he knows how to treat that organ. The recording was done in 1998 by Dabringhaus & Grimm (2 CDs, MDG 316 0847-2).

 

Has this recording been deleted? I ordered it from CD Universe a few weeks ago, and they're having trouble locating it. Any idea where I might find it?

 

 

Graham

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My first choice would always be Ben van Oosten at the big Rouen Cavaillé-Coll. ...

(2 CDs, MDG 316 0847-2).

 

Has this recording been deleted? I ordered it from CD Universe a few weeks ago, and they're having trouble locating it. Any idea where I might find it?

Graham

 

Both the Latry and van Oosten recordings are on amazon.co.uk.

 

I do not know the Latry set, but everything I have heard from this musician was so great that I would order the CD immediately.

 

Best, Friedrich

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Both the Latry and van Oosten recordings are on amazon.co.uk.

 

I do not know the Latry set, but everything I have heard from this musician was so great that I would order the CD immediately.

 

Best, Friedrich

 

Get the Latry-set, (it's back in print as far as I know). I don't know this Van Oosten set, find his playing very good, but mostly (very) 'reserved' (not to say boring). You'll be surprised to hear the NDdP organ souding só good for that time (don't know what they ever did with/for it ...)

 

I also know old LP's with Pierre Labric, if you could get them: do!

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Both the Latry and van Oosten recordings are on amazon.co.uk.

 

I do not know the Latry set, but everything I have heard from this musician was so great that I would order the CD immediately.

 

Best, Friedrich

 

Thanks for this, but Amazon are showing the Latry set as deleted. I'll keep trying!

 

Graham

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Guest Roffensis
Get the Latry-set, (it's back in print as far as I know). I don't know this Van Oosten set, find his playing very good, but mostly (very) 'reserved' (not to say boring). You'll be surprised to hear the NDdP organ souding só good for that time (don't know what they ever did with/for it ...)

 

I also know old LP's with Pierre Labric, if you could get them: do!

 

 

Yes the Labric (done at St Ouen, Rouen) are good, I've still got mine. No sign of those being reissued I guess.

R

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Well done! you'll like them! Glad you found them  :D

R

 

 

Yes, I promise to keep the volume at a reasonable level :blink: and will report back. And while we're on the subject of Vierne, does anyone have the Jeremy Filsell CDs of the complete organ symphonies from St Ouen? I was thinking of acquiring these, and would be grateful for the thoughts of others............

 

Graham

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Yes, I promise to keep the volume at a reasonable level  :blink: and will report back. And while we're on the subject of Vierne, does anyone have the Jeremy Filsell CDs of the complete organ symphonies from St Ouen? I was thinking of acquiring these, and would be grateful for the thoughts of others............

 

Graham

 

Well, another Rouen set - how much are there yet (haven't heard 'm though - so won't judge on the playing).

 

How about Martin Jean at Woolsey Hall, Yale? It'll be my next ...

 

Recently I bought Daniel Roth in St.Sulpice with Vierne 1+2. Though a very good set, I always find this organ (on cd) somewhat remote , 'at a distant' (also on Landale's Franck), even though it's sounds is massive in the tutti. Roth plays the Vierne's with authority, very musical.

 

But, from all Vierne's I've heard so far, it's the Cochereau set that goes in my bag if sent to a desert island (there's só much fire in those recordings :D )

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But, from all Vierne's I've heard so far, it's the Cochereau set that goes in my bag if sent to a desert island (there's só much fire in those recordings  :P  )

 

I would agree - with qualifications!

 

His earlier recording (1955) of the 2me Symphonie is better, in my view, than the later one.

 

Also, at the end of the 1er Symphony, PC plays a tonic sixth chord on the tutti - presumably this had Vierne spinning in his grave.

 

There is also the Finale of the 6me Symphonie, which stars very slowly and gradually gets faster and faster.... He also consistently mis-reads a short passage in the 'A' section of this rondo movement.

 

However, these points aside, I do agree - there is so much fire and life. I do get rather bored when I have to listen to dull performances of anything - on any instrument!

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Olivier Latry has recorded a CD with Vierne's Second and Third (BNL 112741, very well recorded). The playing, of course, is marvellous, and he deals admirably with the Notre-Dame organ -- the recording was made in 1988, before the restoration of the instrument.

 

Apparently, Latry not only gets along very well with what has has been done to the organ by Synaptel, but really enjoys the possibilities of the computerized action; his Messiaen set is testimony to that. I wish he would go for the complete Vierne there now; what he recorded of the First for the 1994 Sony CD "Récital à Notre-Dame" sounded really spectacular, and now with the superior recording technology of the Deutsche Grammophon there could be extraordinary results. Another question is, would Vierne be a repertoire the DG would like to accept in their catalogue?

 

Best,

Friedrich

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Also, at the end of the 1er Symphony, PC plays a tonic sixth chord on the tutti - presumably this had Vierne spinning in his grave.

 

I doubt the tonic sixth chord - okay, I hear it too, but I just can't believe he did it.

Must be the chamades in the pedal (where the b ís played) hanging or so ...

 

Final 6th is simply electrifying, not to mention the the dancing scelletons in the scherzo ....

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I doubt the tonic sixth chord - okay, I hear it too, but I just can't believe he did it.

Must be the chamades in the pedal (where the b ís played) hanging or so ...

 

Final 6th is simply electrifying, not to mention the the dancing scelletons in the scherzo ....

 

Ummm.... no, it is definitely there - for the entire chord; N.-D. is not that resonant!

 

The Finale of Symphonie 6me is electrifying - but it is still inaccurate! I am currently in school (free period - no marking! YAY!! :P ) so I cannot remember exactly where, but I think that it is on the second page, about the first or second line - he plays the same harmonies for both phrases - which is implicitly not correct! He also does this when the phrase is repeated, later.

 

I confess that I do not know how he gets the pedal scales quite that fast - I play the movement fairly quickly - but not that quickly!

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Ummm.... no, it is definitely there - for the entire chord; N.-D. is not that resonant!

 

The Finale of Symphonie 6me is electrifying - but it is still inaccurate! I am currently in school (free period - no marking! YAY!!  :P ) so I cannot remember exactly where, but I think that it is on the second page, about the first or second line - he plays the same harmonies for both phrases - which is implicitly not correct! He also does this when the phrase is repeated, later.

 

I confess that I do not know how he gets the pedal scales quite that fast - I play the movement fairly quickly - but not that quickly!

 

Pedal coupled to a manual (LH)? manualchords by suboctave coupler(RH)?

 

Another thing: do we widness the use of the/an sustenuto on the DVD where he ends at man.5?

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Pedal coupled to a manual (LH)? manualchords by suboctave coupler(RH)?

 

Another thing: do we widness the use of the/an sustenuto on the DVD where he ends at man.5?

 

No - PC would not have needed to cheat. Since his piano teacher had been Nadia Boulanger, his clavier technique was that of a concert pianist; it is highly probable that he brought his pedal technique up to the same standard.

 

I am (still) at school and I cannot find a specification on-line which lists couplers and accessories, but I do not recall there being a sostenuto on the N.-D. organ. No doubt, when I get home and check, the first thing that I shall notice is a sostenuto facility.... To which part of the DVD were you referring, incidentally?

 

It is interesting to watch his clavier technique - particularly his left hand. His facility really is quite impressive.

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Would anyone recommend any recordings of Vierne's Pieces de Fantasie? I've heard a few of the pieces in performance but would I'd like to get a fuller idea of what they're like.

 

Suggestions please....

 

The Oosten set is certainly a good one to have. One set not mentioned so far is that recorded by Colin Walsh at Lincoln Cathedral. As far as I'm aware, It's available from Priory Records' deletion service (£17 a CD).

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The Van Oosten recordings are excellent examples of fine and well-researched performances, in a perfect building and organ. There are also good recordings on the Festivo label (www.festivo.nl) played by Christine Kamp, also at Rouen and are available from Allegro music in Birmingham.

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