Fishell - Dupré - Organ Works, Vol 4 [CD]

Marcel Dupre(1886-1971)Works for Organ, Vol.4Marcel Dupre was born into a musical family in Rouen in 1886. His fatherwas an organist who had been a pupil of Guilmant, who became Dupre's teacherfrom the time the boy was eleven. He was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire atthe age of sixteen, and among his teachers was Widor, whose assistant he becameat the great church of St Sulpice in Paris four years later. Having won thecoveted Grand Prix de Rome in 1949, Dupre began his rise to fame with internationalrecital tours, in which he performed, in Paris and New York, Bach's completeorgan works from memory, a stunning feat which had been his ambition since hewas a child. His American debut concluded with an improvised four-movementorgan symphony, described at the time as a musical miracle.In 1925 Dupre bought a house in the Parisian suburb of Meudon, where hehad a house organ installed which had belonged to Guilmant. Pupils from allover the world were soon to flock there. A year later he was appointedprofessor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire, where his pupils included bothJehan and Marie-Claire Alain, Jean Guillou, Jean Langlais and Oliver Messiaen.In 1934 he succeeded Widor as organist of St Sulpice, where he remained for therest of his life, improvising, as had always been the custom in France, for theMass and Office, unfailingly matching the music to the occasion. He alsopublished a famous edition of Bach's organ works, as well as text-booksincluding the famous Cours d'Improvisation. In the succeeding yearsuntil his death in 1971 he received many honours and awards, and composed worksthat now appear on recital programmes and in recordings all over the world. Onthe very day of his death at home in Meudon, he had played two Masses at StSulpice that very morning.This volume of Dupre's complete organ works includes his first and lastcompositions for the instrument, the Three Preludes and Fugues, Op. 7,written in 1912, and Vitrail, Op. 65, of nearly sixty years later.The former are among his best known works. Whilst their outer movements, inparticular, exhibit the dash and flair of a young virtuoso, they also possessome of the qualities of maturer works, a complete mastery of counterpoint,individual chord progressions, and a sensitive ear for the variety of soundsavailable from the organ.The B major Prelude, the first, is typical of French organtoccatas, with rapid patterns for the hands accompanying a grandiose line forthe pedals. Dupre subtly varies the formula with sudden pianissimos and bycreating dialogue between the hands and feet. The succeeding Fugue isbased on a theme derived from the carillon figures of the Prelude. The Preludeand Fugue in F minor, the second, presents a total contrast to theother two, being quiet and subdued. Perhaps one can detect the shadow ofDebussy, still alive at this period. The theme of the Fugue is a variantof that of the Prelude; here, though, a ray of light shines through. Thethird, the Prelude in G minor, conti