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Site review by Geohominid December 30, 2011
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
Charles Louis Eugène Koechlin (1867-1950) was born in Paris and worked amongst the composers Fauré, Franck, Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Brahms. After two World Wars and the ongoing Vietnam War, he ended his life in the company of Debussy and Ravel, R. Strauss, Schoenberg and Stockhausen. Freedom was built into his dreams, freedom of persons and freedom of spirit. Determined from the start not to get drawn in to joining a particular style or model of musical composition, he studied and absorbed every thing from Bach to Schoenberg's 12-tone system. This approach fitted very well into his holistic World View. Free to evolve his own highly personal style, he was one of the most prolific of composers in his era. Yet for decades his music was eclipsed, and only in the last few years has his star begun arising again in records and concerts.
Koechlin was not specifically trained as an organist, but he was a fine pianist. His studies of Bach brought him to the King of Instruments, and his organ music is never far from Bach's style of contrapuntal writing, or even fugal passages. Christian Schmitt's programme here is described by him as a representative selection from Koechlin's organ works (tracklist below). The music is often thought through in orchestral terms; indeed the disc notes suggest that those unfamiliar with the composer should listen first to some of this orchestral pieces, such as 'The Jungle Book', with its languorous exoticism, or the richly lyrical and poetic 'Le Buisson Ardente'.
This is a rather unusual organ album, in that most of the music is slow to moderate in pace, mostly gentle in dynamic range, warmly lyrical in mood, and the only time the "plein jeu" (full organ) is used is for the short but brilliant 'Fugato modale' at the end. It does, however, echo the composer's free spirit and his system of through composing, as well as his love of JS Bach's genius already noted.
Christian Schmitt, one of the world's most in-demand concert organists, is a fine advocate for the composer and an eloquent communicator of Koechlin's sound world as envisaged on a big organ. His supple legato leading voices, whether on manuals or pedal-board, are expressive and subtly contoured, while his carefully worked-out registrations illuminate the music as if from within, colouring and thus clarifying the various contrapuntal strands. He is given an exemplary recording, with a solid three-dimensional presence in 5.1 multichannel mode. Various divisions of the organ are arranged and appear in a well-focussed front-to-back perspective, giving depth to the registrations chosen. Some of the solo combinations (particularly in the Sonatines, kin to Hindemith's own organ sonatas written at the same time) offer most fetching flute and reed solos at very soft sound levels, accompanied by similarly soft but sharply depicted deep bass notes.
The other star of this disc is of course the organ itself, in the Marktkirche, Hannover. A Goll instrument built in 2007-9, it occupies a remarkable casing which belonged to the unsatisfactory organ of 1953-4. As photographed in the booklet, this strongly asymmetric case, with a circular group of massive bass pipe towers and many interlocking curves of other speaking pipes, is totally typical of '50s design. Indeed, it is a registered Historical Monument. The new Goll organ seeks to provide a much wider range of registrations and characters than the previous organ, to suit music from the Baroque to large-scale French symphonic organ styles. It does so very well, as this disc shows.
The German/English booklet has a handy brief biography of Koechlin, and quite detailed notes about each piece, as well as notes on the organ and its specification. It is graced with an apt and attractive front cover based on an oil painting of Notre Dame in Paris by Albert Lebourg.
A composer-friend of Koechlin's, Henri Sauguet, wrote about him in 1948: "He was a wise man; in reality, a profoundly human sage – passionate (but the master of his passions), radiant,
frank, fiercely in love with freedom and independence, but at the same time
enamoured of discipline and strictness... He respected the thoughts and conceptions of his contemporaries, who, even if they were at odds with him, always found him interested, ready to be
convinced, kindly, and anxious to be fair." This description, I found, was amply and movingly illustrated by the music on this disc.
An unusual and deeply expressive organ disc, which gave me much relaxation, satisfaction and pleasure. It has few competitors, and should be self-recommending.
TRACK LIST
1. Choral in F minor, Op. 90bis
2. 2 Vocalises, Op. 212b: No. 1. Allegretto ben moderato
3. 2 Vocalises, Op. 212b: No. 2. Adagio
4. Requiem des pauvres bougres, Op. 161: Final Choral
5. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 3: I. Large et soutenu 1:28
6. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 3: II. Allegretto scherzando
7. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 3: III. Allegro - solide (style fugue - pour un final du Sonatine)
8. Quatre Chorals, Op. 98: No. 1. Moderato allant et bien lie
9. 4 Chorals, Op. 98: No. 2. Un peu plus calme (que I) et tres expressif
10. 4 Chorals, Op. 98: No. 3. Très Adagio
11. 4 Chorals, Op. 98: No. 4. Offertoire
12. Adagio, Op. 226
13. Fugue, Op. 133, No. 2 (version for organ)
14. Adagio, Op. 201
15. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 2: I. Pastorale - Fanfare (Clair, joyeux)
16. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 2: II. Allegro vivace (non troppo)
17. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 2: III. Calme et doux
18. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 2: IV. Andante (non troppo lento)
19. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 2: V. Andante quasi adagio
20. Adagio, Op. 211
21. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 1: I. Allegretto
22. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 1: II. Allegretto
23. Organ Sonatine, Op. 107, No. 1: III. Pastorale: Allegro moderato - Quasi Allegretto
24. Fugue modale, Op. 204bis
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Copyright © 2011 John Miller and SA-CD.net
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