BOELY: Fantaisie & Fugue in B-flat SAINT-SAENS: Fantaisie in E-flat; Bénediction nuptiale ALKAN: "Pro Organo" CHAUVET: Seven pieces from 20 Morceaux pour orgue FRANCK: Prélude, Fugue et Variation; Pastorale The 1841 Cavaillé-Coll at St. Denis changed organbuilding for all time, for here the great builder conceived his first large organ of great wind-consumption made playable by the Barker lever, used first at St. Denis. Besides all that, the organ sounds wonderful in the ancient and large Basilica where French royals have been buried since the 7th century. Alas, the outrageously talented Pierre Pincemaille, organist of the church since 1988, finds the instrument a frustrating anachronism which he describes in unsettling terms in the CD booklet. It seems he longs for it to be modernized (one may as well say "replaced"). Further, alas, his friends François and Yvette Carbou, producers of the many Cochereau CDs, have recorded the St. Denis organ in a poor state or tune and from such a perspective it seems unrealistically unbalanced, lending a measure of misplaced credence to Pincemaille's argument. |