Dupre: Works for organ Vol 9

"Naxos have put us in their debt by providing a substantial organ repertoire with fine players and excellent recordings. Not least of their achievements is this latest disc, which gives us an extra dimension, by including works for organ and strings. Such pieces are not always easy to perform for practical reasons, so Dupre's effective works for these combinations of instruments are not heard as much as they might be. These pieces will repay investigation and, at budget price, don't hesitate."
- Organists' Review (Roger Fisher), May 2000

Marcel Dupré was the musical successor to that great trio of Parisian organist-composers, Louis Vierne, Charles-Marie Widor and Alexandre Guilmant, all of whom taught him at the Paris Conservatoire. A brilliant recitalist, improvisateur and composer in his own right, Dupré also presided at the organ of St Sulpice Church in Paris from 1934 until his death. His many compositions in several liturgical and symphonic forms reflect a classical, orderly mind-set and a compositional style very much concerned with structure and traditional counterpoint but nonetheless enriched by an advanced, and sometimes polytonal, harmonic language.

Dupré's works for organ reflect his equal concern for the liturgical and concert rôles played by that instrument. A mind as searching and humanistic as his would not have been content with restricting the organ to its typical ecclesiastical confines (though what he does to revive the art of the church organist is on a par with Bach's work); rather, Dupré answers the urge to explore the outside world, to see what might transpire when organ and other instruments (beyond the voice) combine. Thus we are presented with the three major chamber works on this recording, while his compositions also include two concertos for organ and orchestra and three works for organ and piano.

The Sonata in A minor for violoncello and organ, Op. 60, is the last of Dupré's chamber works and is dedicated to the cellist Paul Bazelaire, a colleague at the Paris Conservatoire. It is a work of lyrical charm and very clear structure, the outer movements being in sonata form, with two contrasting themes. The middle movement, in ABA structure, achieves its contrast through a careful metrical shift that keeps the inner pulse constant but relaxes the outer. Waltz becomes song before reverting back to waltz - all with wit and ease.