A Fabulous Discovery

Salve Regina: Works of Yves Castagnet, Olivier Latry and Francis Poulenc
Maitrise Notre-Dame de Paris
Editions Hortus
HORT-056 (2007)

***

There is no worse-kept secret here than my infatuation with the music of Maurice Duruflé and my broader love for the compositional school surrounding the great churches of Paris and the Paris Conservatoire from the 1850s or so up to the present day--indeed, I daresay I've belabored the point. But it's the very center point of my musical interest, and I've lived immersed in this music for a couple decades now and I seem never to tire of it.

I say the school continues to the present day, but the bulk of its glory is naturally enough shining at us from the past: César Franck, Charles-Marie Widor, Louis Vierne, Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, etc., etc. Probably the most famous flag-bearer of this school in recent years has been Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), and many music listeners have heard of Franck and perhaps Duruflé from his Requiem of 1948. But the rest, including the many active participants today, are likely to be unfamiliar to most folks.

Even I am a little surprised that the modern world has not overrun the school (not merely the school in the sense of the Conservatoire de Paris, where many of these composers studied and taught, but in this larger sense of practitioners of a particular musical aesthetic; I'm surprised the aesthetic continues). But continue it does, full steam ahead. On the couple visits I've made to Paris, I've been most fortunate to stumble upon--literally--noteworthy people doing noteworthy things, which had the effect of making me feel like the stream of a vibrant, if arcane, history was rushing onward and I was lucky enough to be able to step briefly into it.

Wading through YouTube videos a few weeks back (it's stunning how much stuff is on YouTube), I ran across an audio-and-still-photo video of a movement from a mass by the Notre Dame choir organist Yves Castagnet, the Sanctus. I'm aware of Mr. Castagnet from a recording or two (plus a performance I attended in Paris in 1998)--he is a former first prize winner for organ performance from the Conservatoire de Paris and is as accomplished as his comrades at Notre Dame, even if he leads a quieter public existence.

What I was not aware of before now was that Mr. Castagnet is a composer. This shouldn't be a surprise, but modern compositions from the present batch of Parisian organists seem fairly rare. Notre Dame's most famous organist, Olivier Latry, is a devoted improviser, as are his co-titulars at Notre Dame, Phillippe Lefebvre and Jean-Pierre Leguay (their compositions, if there are any, are not numerous or widely-played). So too with the organ loft of St. Sulpice. Daniel Roth has a couple compositions, but mostly he and his second, Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin, are famous for their improvisational arts. I'm thrilled that on my visits to Paris I've been able to hear improvisations by Vincent Warnier and Jean Guillou and Phillippe Lefebvre and Ms. Cauchefer-Choplin; but the end result of this experience has been to convince me that the movement is now almost entirely about improvisation.

So this discovery of a composed mass by Yves Castagnet was to me a real find. And it was doubly thrilling to find it to be an engaging piece, energetic and confident and absolutely steeped in this aesthetic world. Written in an ABA form, the Sanctus takes the form of a typical French organ toccata with a vocal overlay. It's written in a virtuoso sextuple meter with thunderous bass octaves underpinning the soaring choral lines. I robbed the audio track from the video and promptly wore a hole in my hard drive listening again and again.

But the Messe had other movements which were nowhere to be found. I decided I had to locate the rest of it. The person posting the video said the track came from a CD obtained from the Notre Dame gift shop which contained the entire mass, plus a published work by Olivier Latry--another first for me!--and some Poulenc. I found the website for the cathedral's gift shop, but I was unable to discern which of the available CDs was the one in question--nor could I determine whether they would ship overseas. After a bit more poking, I found the CD label--Hortus--and was able to go to their website for more information. I spent another hour trying to find an online music seller who would have the CD available for MP3 download, but alas there were none; the disc was just a bit too obscure. But Hortus themselves would happily ship the CD (and another I found of Vierne and a mass by Jean-Pierre Leguay) to the US of A, and after a month or so I was in business.

A few observations: First, I don't remember any French vocal group sounding nearly so good as the Maitrise Notre Dame de Paris do on this and two other recent CD acquisitions. I don't know to whom to attribute the improvement, but the pitch and blend and precision, the dynamic control, and the quality of the soloists are all absolutely top shelf here. Second, the massive acoustic of Notre Dame, plus the thundering grand orgue (which sits nearly a city block distant from the singers) combine to make a really magical and singular sonic environment for music. The present disc is recorded close to the choir so that the organ's immense power, while still palpable, is kept at bay just a bit. This enables some of the organ's more aggressive timbres--especially the big pedal reeds--to be used to great effect without drowning out the choir (as I suspect would occur if the choir joined the organist up in the organ loft.

All three pieces on the CD use the Salve Regina chant as basic thematic material. Castagnet's Messe "Salve Regina" is the centerpiece. Written for mixed chorus and two organs, it contains four movements with interspersed plainchant sung by female voices only. For this performance, Olivier Latry mans the grand organ console and composer Castagnet takes his regular place at the choir organ. The work is mostly quiet and contemplative with the Salve Regina chant making regular appearances. The quiet is punctuated with occasional outbursts from the organ, especially the powerful close of the second-movement Gloria and the whole of the now-familiar third movement, the Sanctus. In the Sanctus, the grand organ part is given all the technical fireworks, and the quieter, more intimate choir organ given the very Duruflé-like central section. In fact, the whole work sounds very reminiscent of Duruflé's Op. 9 Requiem or his Op. 10 Quatre motets, a mixture of ancient melodies and modern, yet still tonal, harmonies (indeed, I found a British review of the CD in question which referred to the piece as "post-Duruflé," which gets right to the heart of it, I think). The piece is unmistakeably French, the tonality sounding very much like Ravel and Debussy and, yes, Duruflé.

Latry's Salve Regina for Organ and Voice is based on an improvisation he did, I believe, during an American concert tour. It intersperses the solo singing of chants with organ sketches of varying characters based on the Salve Regina phrases just sung. It is the only composed work of Latry's of which I've heard, and it naturally has very much the character of his improvisations. He is very inventive in his use of timbre at the grand orgue, and the effect is similar to the Castagnet work in its tenor and tonality. All these pieces are essentially tonal, but are unafraid to use spice as needed. The musicians are superb throughout, and the recording first rate. (One wonders what another recording of the work would sound like without this acoustic and that instrument.)

Duruflé himself gave us a very limited number of composed works. One is grateful for the wondrous pieces we have, pieces of absolute perfection and haunting beauty, but one naturally pines for more. I have no idea how many compositions Mr. Castagnet has in him, but on the strength of this work I will be continually on the lookout for anything new coming from his pen.

Highest recommendation for the organ lover.

It's a GOArt World

French Symphonic Masterpieces
Hans Davidsson, organ
The 1998 Verschueren GOArt organ, Goteborg, Sweden
Loft Recordings LRCD 1054

• Guilmant: First Sonata (Symphony,) Op. 42
• Franck: Priere, Op. 20
• Widor: 2 movements from Symphony No. 6, Op. 42
• Alain: Intermezzo
• Duruflé: Suite, Op. 5

***

It is, apparently. My rapture with the recently-reviewed Volume 2 of Hans Davidsson's Buxtehude cycle recorded on GOArt's recent period recreation of a North German organ has led, naturally enough, to the acquisition of Volume 1 as well. I'll have two cents' about that shortly.

In the process of learning more about GOArt (the Goteborg Organ Art Center), I found that this North German organ was not the end of their surprises. Turns out that they are in the process of building a trio of period-faithful organs from distinct lineages. From these resources students learn hands-on about the mechanisms and sounds which played so large a part in the compositional schools in which we are still immersed today. I just can't overstate my fascination with this process, and with every detail of what has resulted from it.

The North German organ reviewed below is understandably their centerpiece, as the large and elaborate instrument was exhaustively researched and then designed and constructed in the school's own shops--an awesome accomplishment by every standard. But the North German organ was not the first instrument in the project. GOArt began with a similarly exhaustively-researched recreation of an instrument in the style of the French master, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Readers of these pages will recall that the Massachusetts firm of C. B. Fisk undertook quite a similar project at Oberlin College in Ohio in 2002; I've reviewed three... different... recordings... on this Fisk instrument, and have debated how close the firm came to hitting their mark. That another firm, this time with a university research staff in tow, would undertake the same project seems like lightning striking twice (in a good way). Then to find a recording of that instrument--one with Duruflé's Op. 5 Suite pour orgue particularly--was like a small lottery win for me.

This first GOArt organ was not built in the university's shops, but was entrusted to the Dutch firm Verschueren Orgelbouw BV from Heythuysen. After acknowledging that no existing firm was doing what Cavaillé-Coll used to do, an extensive search was undertaken and Verschueren emerged at the far end of that search. The chosen firm would obviously need to be one which was enthusiastically on board with building someone else's instrument, and with an extensive and diverse advisory board plus a university research team meddling in its operations, and the resulting collaboration bore fruit in 1998. As with the Fisk organ at Oberlin, the GOArt group researched every detail of Cavaillé-Coll's methods for constructing pipes and organ mechanisms, and the GOArt people then went to some pains to duplicate even the exact voicings of the various ranks by doing close A/B comparisons of their new pipes with the existing C-C pipework.

I think the Fisk organ at Oberlin College is a really fabulous and beautiful instrument, the outcome of a wonderful and exciting process; its a magnificent organ in its own right. But I don't really think of Cavaillé-Coll when I hear it. It's clearly French in general character, but it lacks some thing, some fingerprint that's found on all C-C's. I've speculated that the extreme lack of resonance in Finney Chapel put the Fisk people at a bit of a disadvantage, as none of C-C's famous instruments are found in such dead acoustics. I just can't help thinking that the profound intimacy of the acoustic has caused the Fisk people to voice the rough edges off the organ, edges which might have been beneficial--and certainly distinctive--in a larger acoustic. At the very least, the acoustic makes it difficult to assess how close the Fisk firm got to C-C's ideas. (The supplemental disc included with that first release addresses the question on everyone's mind: but what would it sound like in Notre Dame or St. Sulpice? But the inclusion of that disc, whereby the original recording is subjected to a computer alteration to place the organ in the acoustic of Chartres Cathedral, seems an admission of defeat. The oddity of Finney Chapel's sonic setting compared to any place we're used to hearing C-C's work is inescapable).

The space into which GOArt put their Verschueren organ was only a little more resonant than Finney Chapel, but GOArt specifically stipulated a minimum resonance they would accept and then took pains to accommodate that acoustic. This included researching what Cavaillé-Coll had to say about less resonant rooms. Turns out that C-C built quite a number of organs for private residences, which would naturally not have cathedral acoustics at their disposal, and the master had some distinct ideas about how to cope with this. Thus, GOArt's room was constructed specifically to order, including details like having the hardwood floor floating on sand, and having an insulating rubber layer between the inner and outer sections of the walls. The room is 59' X 35' X 35', so not large by cathedral standards. But it seems quite a sympathetic space for organ music, with enough resonance to help the organ blend.



Whatever the contribution of individual elements, all the research has paid off big: with this GOArt instrument, the Cavaillé-Coll illusion is very convincing indeed, quite thrillingly so. Though the instrument is relatively small--only 43 stops on three manuals, compared to 58 stops on the Oberlin Fisk--the stoplist and the voicing are spot-on. I would not be able to tell on sound alone whether this was a C-C or not (something I think I'd have little trouble doing with the Oberlin organ). GOArt's fidelity to C-Cs design is so comprehensive as to include a pneumatic-assist Barker Lever (on an instrument surely not large enough to require one, but the touch will be quite different from either electric or mechanical action) and to use mechanical combination pedals instead of the now-standard electronic pushbuttons. An electronic combination system was included, but only after the designers determined it could be added on without altering the period function or console aesthetic of the standard system in any way. Fanatical indeed. But the proof is in the pudding. I honestly can't think of what seminal thing an organ student would miss out on by playing this GOArt instrument over the actual Cavaillé-Coll. (True, they'd get Paris in the bargain, but only for a lesson or two.) The organ facade is configured in a shallow U shape, with the console in the middle and facing out into the hall, looking like a downsized version of the great organ at St. Sulpice without the statuary (and with simply-ornamented casework in sympathy with the concert hall's architecture).



As with the Buxtehude releases, Professor Hans Davidsson mans the Verschueren console for this release. Like his brilliant countryman Hans Fagius, Dr. Davidson demonstrates that he can play very convincingly in several styles and from very different periods. He brings the same deliberation to these works as to his Buxtehude, but he knows how to sound the organ to excellent effect, and he is well up for the dramatic moments. Cesar Franck's long-line Priere, which sounds almost like a 10 minute continuous melody, seems especially convincing. Likewise, in the denouement of the opening movement of Duruflé's Suite he lingers deliciously at the dissonant chords as the hands and feet move contrariwise, followed by three of the most beautiful minutes in all of music to close out the movement.

This is all a fantastic undertaking. Like the aircraft simulators I must work with in my job, I love that students at Goteborg are able to immerse themselves so effectively and completely in these worlds while never leaving the campus in Sweden. The pedagogical advantages seem palpable to me, though I think it's a really cool exercise even without the overt educational mandate. But even without a love of the process that brought us the instrument, this is a great recording of organ music. The recording itself is quiet and clean, and the performances are excellent. And the organ itself? It rocks.

Three Recordings of Maurice Duruflé's Organ Works

Maurice Durufle / Vincent Warnier: L'Oeuvre d'orgue
Vincent Warnier, organ (1863 / 1873, Cavaillé-Coll, St. Etienne-du-mont, Paris)
Intrada INTRA027



Duruflé: L'Oeuvre integrale pour orgue
Stefan Schmidt, organ (2001, Karl Gockel, St. Peter's, Dusseldorf)
Aeolus AE-10211



Durufle: Organ Music (complete)
Henry Fairs, organ (1884, Cavaillé-Coll at the Notre-Dame d'Auteuil, Paris)
Naxos 8.557924

• Scherzo, Op. 2
• Prelude, Adagio et Choral varié sur le theme du "Veni Creator," Op. 4
• Suite pour orgue, Op. 5
• Prelude et fugue sur le nom d'Alain, Op. 7
• Fugue sur le carillon des heures de la Cathedral de Soissons, Op. 12
• Prelude sur l'introit de l'Epiphanie, Op. 13
• Chant Donne--Hommage a Jean Gallon (Fairs, Schmidt)
• Meditation, Op. posth. (Fairs)

***

Duruflé has been on my short list of favorite composers now for nearly 20 years. I remember getting a couple cassette tapes from a friend in the mid-80s and realized that here finally was the tonal world of Debussy and Ravel translated to my favorite instrument (albeit with a gregorian chant underpinning which the other two lacked). I didn't realize at that time that these two cassettes constituted the entirety of Duruflé's published music: one tape for choral works (the Op. 9 Requiem, the Op. 10 Motets, and the Op. 11 Messe Cum Jubilo) and another for organ works. Duruflé's own explanation for his scant output is that his years of teaching composition so heightened his critical faculties that he simply wasn't happy with anything he wrote. The couple of unpublished works which have come forth since his death in 1986 leave one pining for an unexpected discovery of other unknown things, the proverbial lost trunk of sketches. I guess we should be thankful that we have as much as we do. Given the extremely limited scope of his work, then, I feel no compunction about acquiring every recording of his complete organ works I can get my hands on.

It's been a good couple of weeks on this front. After meeting him during our visit to Paris this summer, I was able to find Vincent Warnier's survey on iTunes (I saw several copies of the CD in Paris, but didn't know who the artist was at the time; the physical CD is hard to find back stateside). Warnier shares the titular post at Duruflé's own church in Paris, St. Etienne-du-mont, with organist Thierry Escaich (who has his own Duruflé survey out), and this particular CD was recorded on Duruflé's own instrument at St. Etienne-du-mont. This organ was worked on, as were all of Paris's greatest instruments, by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll; in this case, in 1863 and again in 1873. As one would expect, the organ has been gone thru by several other builders in the 130 years since. How much Cavaillé-Coll remains is unknown to me. But it makes all the right noises, and has that slightly jagged sound--almost as though it's not quite in tune--an aggressive upperwork that makes me think I hear Cavaillé-Coll's work.

Warnier acquits himself well technically, and the performances are solid throughout, though not always the most communicative examples of this repertoire I've encountered. His Op. 13 Prelude sur l'introit de l'Epiphanie in particular passes in rather perfunctory fashion, but the Op. 12 Fugue sur le carillon des heures de la Cathedral de Soissons (with which the Prelude is sometimes paired) comes off better. I like his Op. 7 Prelude and Fugue sur le nom d'Alain, especially the stately pacing of the great fugue. The sound of the iTunes AAC files leaves one wishing for the original CD, or at least an Apple Lossless version, as the compression squashes the sound just a bit. Still, it's a good recording and has the imprimatur of having come from Duruflé's successor.

Stefan Schmidt is the Cantor of the Church of St. Peter in Dusseldorf, where his recording was made. The instrument is a newer offering from a builder with whom I am unfamiliar, one Karl Gockel from near Heidelberg. It's always an interesting proposition to me to hear this very French music played on instruments not specifically tailored to it. Whereas Bach plays well on anything from organ to pan pipes to steel drum, the music of Duruflé is indelibly linked to this very Parisian, Cavaillé-Coll sound. The organ is brilliantly recorded, the live reverberation of the room blending the aggressive tutti into a swirling kaleidoscope of full-range sound. The organ, though not especially large, has a snarling, assertive sound at full throttle which is a bit reminiscent of Cavaillé-Coll's own sound. Schmidt understands his instrument and acoustic, and the playing is paced to make best use of both. Recommended.

My favorite of these three, though is the Naxos release by Englishman Henry Fairs. Fairs is University Organist at the University of Birmingham and an organ tutor at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and another specialist in this repertoire. He has found a little-known (to me, anyway) Cavaillé-Coll in Paris to speak his piece. I don't rate the sound of the instrument or the recording quite as high as the Sefan Schmidt CD, but it's very good just the same, and the performances are spot-on. The instrument is quite small, and so the tutti in the gnashing chromatic climax of the Prelude of the Op. 5 Suite lacks the teeth one likes to see here. But the individual solo stops are lovely, and Fairs makes the most of what he has available. He also includes the delightful Hommage a Jean Gallon and the even rarer Meditation, both published posthumously. (This latter piece is an arrangement of the Agnus Dei from the Op. 11 Cum Jubilo mass, and I've only elsewhere seen it on a BIS release by Hans Fagius.) Fair's Hommage a Jean Gallon is especially haunting, a simple two minute piece that sets deep hooks; I must have listened to it 25 times since getting this recording. It's simply but unapologetically registered, and puts the small Cavaillé-Coll in the most delicious light.

(An aside: you gotta love Naxos. This is their second full survey of the organ music of Duruflé, the first coming over a decade ago at the hands of Eric Lebrun at yet another lesser-known Cavaillé-Coll in Paris. What began as a budget label has become classical music's greatest powerhouse, issuing consistently excellent performances and recordings of both well known and lesser known repertoire while the big labels are floundering. Where I originally looked to them to introduce me inexpensively to new repertoire, I now tend to favor them for consistent quality. That you get to save 25 or 50% is icing on the cake.)

These are all three worthy additions to the catalog, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any of the three. My favorite single CD of this music remains Todd Wilson's 1986 recording on the Delos label, a recording of a medium-sized Schudi organ in Dallas. The organ is exactly right for the repertoire, the sonic quality of the recording is unbeatable, and the performances are simply perfect. The recording is currently unavailable new, but can be found on Amazon.