Guilmant at the Trocadéro


Peter Eilander of The Netherlands creates a unique series of CDs devoted to recording all of the organ sonatas as well as the works that Parisian organist and composer Alexandre Guilmant played in an enormously popular annual series of concerts on the Cavaillé-Coll at The Trocadéro concert hall in Paris, near the Eiffel Tower. Having inaugurated the organ in 1878, the series begun in 1879 included, among other works, a Handel organ concerto with orchestra and Guilmant's own adaptations of works by earlier composers which he later published in four books with the overall title Repertoire des Concerts du Trocadéro and the subtitle Organ works of early composers published and adapted to modern organs. Eilander plays the works on ideal Cavaillé-Coll organs.



Guilmant Organ Works, Vol. 1
Guilmant Organ Works, Vol. 1

Dutch organist Peter Eilander plays the Cavaillé-Coll organs at The Madeleine in Paris and the rarely heard one of 1874 at Lisieux Cathedral. He plays the exciting and powerful Sonata 1 in its first version for 3m organ as introduced by Guilmant at the inauguration of the new organ at the Royal Church in Laeken, Belgium. Guilmant performed this same work in its second version for organ and orchestra in 1878 at the Trocadero in Paris, and made a third version in 1898 for solo 4m organ. For those very popular Trocadero concerts, Guilmant reintroduced much early music by Buxtehude, Bach, Handel, and many others, then published his modernizations of these works in four books from which Eilander plays two Handel organ concertos which Guilmant arranged for large organ solo, as well as the charming Martini piece. The Sonata No. 2 for solo organ is the shortest of Guilmant’s eight organ sonatas, was completed in 1876 by rearranging the arresting melodies of earlier works.

Clairon CL-2104$14.98
Guilmant Organ Works, Vol. 2

Sonata No. 3 in c, op. 56; Sonata No. 4 in d, op. 61; BACH: Sinfonia from Cantata 29, Sonatina from Cantata No. 106 COUPERIN: Sarabande et Fuguette; Soeur Monique; Sarabande Grave CORELLI: Prlude from Violin Sonata No. 9 SCHMID: Gagliard RAMEAU: Preluded to Dardanus; Musette et Rondeau from Les Indes Galantes; Air Majestueux from Zoroastre. Peter Eilander plays the the Cavaillé-Coll organs at The Madeleine in Paris and at Lisieux Cathedral.

Clairon CL-2055$14.98
Guilmant Organ Works, Vol. 3

Peter Eilander continues his series of the Guilmant organ sonatas at St. Ouen in Rouen and includes two more transcriptions by Guilmant of works by Marcello and Handel.

Sonata No. 6 in b, Op. 86; MARCELLO: Psalm 19; HANDEL: Overture to Saul; Sonata 5 in c, Op. 80

CL-2076CD$14.98