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| The complete organ works of Jacques Boyvin (1649-1706) are recorded for the first time as an entity. Michel Chapuis, the great player of, and authority on, French baroque organ music, explains in fine CD booklet notes the style of playing and registrations specified by Boyvin and which are possible on the organ used for the recordings. It is located in the Cathedral at Auch (Gers), France, and was built in the 18th century by Jean Merry and was recently restored. It contains the rare Plein Jeu d’Echo which Boyvin specifies for some works. Boyvin was the cathedral organist at Rouen (where Boyvin’s organ is long since gone) and was regarded by Couperin as the absolute master of composition. Chapuis records all of the works on two, 2-CD sets. Boyvin Complete Organ Works, Vol. 1 Boyvin Complete Organ Works, Vol. 2 | |
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| The great and famous 1774 Isnard 4m organ of 70 ranks at the Basilica of the Royal Convent in Saint-Maximin, France, is played by Paul Bardon. The same program is on two CDs in the box, one in DTS Surround Sound and the other conventional. D’ANDRIEU: Le Livre d’Orgue GUILAIN: Suites 1-4 pour le Magnificat DU MAGE: 1er Suite du Premier Ton | |
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| On the fabulous 1773 Isnard 4m at the Basilica in Saint-Maximin, France, titulaire Paul Bardon plays the only known work of Gaspard Corrette (1671- 1766), a Mass for “religious ladies” published in 1703. Sisters of St-Maximin Convent sing the brief versets among the 24 organ pieces and four versets of the piece by Jehan Titelouze (1563-1633), alternating with the organ. This package has two discs, a conventional CD and another in in 5-channel DTS. CORRETTE: Messe du 8e Ton TITELOUZE: Ave Maris Stella | |
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| Leave it to this wonderful French label to present an entirely superlative and original CD resulting from artful anachronisms: a 21st century organist (the superb Louis Thiry of Rouen) playing transcriptions of 14th and 15th century vocal music on a little-known historic organ of the 17th/18th centuries. Writes Thiry, “This is . . . a musical bouquet gathered as I pleased like wild flowers picked up at random . . ." Click on the headline for more information and to order. | |
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| Famed organist Michel Chapuis improvises in French classical style on the organs built by Robert and François-Henri Clicquot in 1710 at the Chapelle Royale at Versailles and in 1783 at Souvigny to exemplify his commentary on improvisation, French classical style, notes inégals, ornamentation, expression, registration, etc. The superb sound on the DVD includes a soundtrack of the commentary which may be heard in the original French or with English overdubbing. Note: This DVD will not play on American or Japanese television sets or DVD players (NTSC). However, it will play on a computer which is equipped with a DVD drive and also on European TV (PAL). | |
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| Marie-Claire Alain plays the Couperin Mass for the Parishes before a live audience in 2002 on the organ built in 1748 by Dom Bedos and restored in 1997 at the Abbey in Sainte-Croix de Bordeaux. A schola sings the versets. | |
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| Dupuy (1707-1789), of Toulouse and Saint-Sernin, copied several of his works, thus preserving them, into a manuscript known as Recueil Marcorelles, from which these first performances in 250 years are recorded by the Viva Voce vocal and instrumental ensemble (including organ) directed by Georges Lartigau. The works are Psaume Domine Dominus, noster a Messe, and Motet Exurge Domine | |
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| With the exceptions of Charpentier and Lully, Michel Chapuis plays a program essentially devoted to composers who were also organists at the chapel in Versailles, on the organ that they played: the 1710 Robert Clicquot 4-59, restored in 1995. | |
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| Champion of historic organs and early music, Michel Chapuis plays the organ in the abbey church of Sainte-Croix in Bordeaux as built by the Benedictine monk Dom Bedos in 1748 and restored and reconstituted from 1985 to 1997 by Pascal Quoirin and his co-workers. Ekaterina Fedorova Colin, soprano, sings the versets for the liturgical suites. Click Picture for Details & to Order | |
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| The organ and the church of Saint-Roch, where Balbastre was titulaire 1756-1799, are the venue for this recording by Francoise Levechin-Gangloff of 18 works by Balbastre (1727-1799), who also played for annual 3-month stints at Notre-Dame Cathedral. The works recorded here are not the beloved Noëls, but other works that deserve a hearing. So popular was his playing that he is sometimes credited with creating the organ recital. Click Picture for Details & to Order | |
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| Michel Chapuis, organ and champion of historic organs and early music, is joined by Ekaterina Fedorova Colin, soprano, for a program which includes Burgundian noëls, presented here for the first time with texts. The organ, dating from 1768, is a marvelous instrument, almost miraculously preserved as built in this town of Saint-Jean-de-Losne along the Burgundian Canal. Chapuis first recorded it 40 years ago. Click Picture for Details & to Order | |
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| In a unique project, organist Michel Chapuis has made three separate CDs, each devoted to one of the three styles for which the 1754 Riepp organ at Dole in France is well suited, especially following modest enlargment in 1787. Click the picture for descriptions of each CD and to order. | |
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| This celebration of the glories of the French baroque and especially works composed in memory of Jean-Baptiste Lully (originally Giambattista Lulli, b. 1632 in Florence, Italy, d. 1687 Paris) explores the gamut from glorious pomp, melancholy softness, to refined mystery on the Isnard organ (1774) at Saint Maximin with the fine playing of Philippe Bardon. The works by Charles Piroye (1668?-1712?), a student of Lully and lifelong organist, are his complete output for organ, including works recently located by Paul Bardon. Click on the headline for more information and to order. | |
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| On the 1797 Henri Clicquot organ at the cathedral in Poitiers, France, Jean-Baptiste Robin (b. 1976, Paris) plays spectacularly. He was appointed titulaire at Poitiers at age 23, having studied with Louis Robillard, Odile Bailleux, Marie-Claire Alain, Michel Bouvard, and Olivier Latry. Click on the headline for more information and to order. | |
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| A Mass, Te Deum, Hymn Iste Confessor, Magnificat for the birth of St. John the Baptist, Motet Exultate Deo, Responses Venient and Manus Meas Marchand at St. Maximin The glorious 1775 Isnard 4m, exquisitely restored by Yves Cobourdin over four years ending in 1995, becomes the ideal vehicle for the informed and informing performance by Bernard Coudurier and his associates as recorded on this brand new 2-CD set. Their fascinating assembly of these pieces into a likely contemporary liturgical context, alternating with plainchant, and freely selecting parts from the five books of music left to us by Louis Marchand, brings a generous vitality so absent from other presentations of these works. A serpent appears occasionally as well. The fine CD booklet discusses the chant text selected, the organ, the works, the life of Louis Marchand, and more. This first class production is a delight. | |
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| Kimberly Marshall plays some of Bach’s popular pieces juxtaposed with works by French composers which Bach studied. The organ is the Fisk at Stanford University, which was inspired by organs that Bach would have played. The Fisk is also unique in that it incorporates two different tuning temperaments, both of which are heard on this recording. Click Picture for Details & to Order | |
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| Bruno Morin plays the famous Clicquot organ in the Cathedral at Poitiers to present this music of pageantry. Boyvin Suites on the 2nd, 3rd, and 7th tones; the Lully pieces are transcribed for organ: Cacone de Galatée and Passacaille d'Armide. | |
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| What music was played on the great Clicquot organ when it was erected in Souvigny in 1783? Found in the gallery there is the score by Jacques-Marie Charpentier (1766-1834), thus providing part of the answer. It is also likely that his father’s music (Jean-Jacques, 1734-1794) was also played. A discussion of this enlightens this most enjoyable, often jaunty, organ music played by organist Jean-Luc Perrot with percussions. The Mass is sung by La Chapelle St-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon directed by Jean-François Duchamp. The wonderful organ at Souvigny is beautifully recorded. Click picture for list of works | |
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| André Isoir plays the Lorris organ in Gâtinais to celebrate its 500th anniversary in a program of early and Renaissance works. This legendary organist plays this repertoire with great joy and style. Click picture for repertoire | |
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| Organist Stéphane Béchy plays the 1739 Parizot organ at the Church of St-Rémy of Dieppe, exploring unpublished music composed by Michel Corrette at the end of the 18th century and still entrenched in the traditions of the “Grand Siècle.” | |
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| The 1981 Alfred Kern swallow’s nest organ includes pipes from the Silbermann organ and other previous builders. Marc Baumann plays early French works and later French pieces as well. Click picture for repertoire | |
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| The Dom Bedos Organ at Sainte-Croix Abbey in Bordeaux, dating from the mid-1700s, was restored in the mid-1980s after many years of neglect. In a story as complicated as French political history, the organ was moved from its original home at Sainte-Croix after the Revolution and eventually came back home after a tenure at the cathedral in Bordeaux. Francis Chapelet plays French music of the period on the restored organ. Click headline for repertoire | |
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| Renowned master of early French organ music André Isoir plays all of the organ music of Nicholas DeGrigny on the ideal and historic French classical organs by Clicquot at Poitiers and by Isnard at St. Maximin-en-Provence. Click Picture for Details & to Order | |
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| Nicolas de Grigny published in 1699 a mass and hymns for major feasts of the church year. Bernard Coudurier records them on a superb and large period instrument. | |
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| Couperin Mass for the Parishes and Mass for the Convents; Guilain Suites on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tones are played on the 1736 Moucherel organ at Albi by Bernard Coudurier. | |
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| Existing by 1683 in the abbey church of the town of La Chaise-Dieu along the Loire river in France, this organ played for all of the 1700s and was enlarged at least twice during that century. It was silenced during the Revolution and remained so until 1976! Restored in 1995 by Michel Garnier with new mechanism and mostly new pipes built on Clicquot models, the organ sounds fabulously successful on this superb CD showcasing the remarkable artistry of Jean Luc Perrot (born 1959) who plays works by Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy (1633-1694) which have been arranged into an appealing Suite, an overture by DeGrigny, and his own works in French Classic style: ten Versets alternés sur la Messe “Orbis Factor,” and Suite à 4 mains pour l’orgue dans le style français wherein Georges Lartigau lends two hands. Also recorded are four Versets sur l’Ave Maris Stella composed anonymously in the early 19th century. | |
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| The 4-68 organ in pure French Classic style completed in 1991 by Guilbault-Thérien of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec was a great hit of the 1999 OHS National Convention in Montreal, especially as it was played by Yves-G. Préfontaine, who plays period music on this CD. | |
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| 17th & 18th Century France Yves Cuenot plays period literature on the 1789 Callinet organ at Notre-Dame d'Auxonne | |
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| This 2-CD set features music contemporary with Clicqout whose organ from 1783 at St. Mark of Sourvignyin Alliers, France, is almost unaltered. The second CD contains a work by Guy Bovet commissioned for the Souvigny organ. Thilo Muster (a fine Bovet student) is organist. | |
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