LOUIS VIERNE Complete Organ Symphonies = Symphonies No. 1 in D minor Op. 14; No. 2 in E minor Op. 20 – Daniel Roth, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll Organ, Saint-Sulpice, Paris – Aeolus multichannel SACD AE-10451, 79:18 [Distr. by Albany] ****:
This is the first volume of a proposed SACD series of all six organ symphonies by the last of the great romantic organist-composers of the last 19th and early 20th centuries in France. The second volume is also out and there will probably be just a third eventually.
Vierne carried the development of the organ symphony even further than his predecessors Franck and Widor had done. No other composer since has developed this style imitating the symphony orchestra any further; Messiaen went in an entirely different direction. Part of Vierne’s advancements were due to the variety of possibilities offered him by the complex Cavaillé-Coll pipe organs designed for this type of music in the second half of the 19th century. (The Registration/Composition of this particular organ – dating originally from 1862 – is listed in the back of the note booklet.)
Even though Vierne was almost blind most of his life, his earlier years were happy for him. He started on his Symphony No. 1 in 1898 and was married the next year in Saint-Sulpice. The work shows the strong influence of his teacher Widor, but Vierne inserts more chromaticism in some passages than found in Widor’s organ symphonies. The general feeling of the work is more of a suite than a symphony, and all with an optimistic tenor. The work’s Finale changes from D minor to Major and is one of his most-played pieces – excellent for church postludes. Its main theme appears in the pedals.
The Second Symphony is in some ways less free and improvisatory than the First, and makes use of Franck’s cyclic structure. The first movement is in pure sonata-allegro form. The work’s Choral movement is very similar to a Choral movement in Widor’s Symphony No. 7. It is followed by Scherzo and Cantabile movements, and the work closes with an E Major Final, which extensively develops two main themes.
Daniel Roth is a superb organist and Aeolus has perfectly captured in hi-res surround the rich sounds conjured up between Vierne’s works and the magnificent pipe organ in this historic space. I have some of these organ symphonies in binaural recordings on standard CDs, but the hi-res 5-channel surround on this SACD clearly surpasses even the added spatial recreation of those recordings on headphones.
— John Sunier
