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  <L'Organiste> is the title of a collection of sets -- each set, seven pieces long -- upon which César Franck was working at the time of
  his death. They were written, not for the Grand Orgue, but for the French Harmonium, a more elaborate instrument than its Anglo
  counterpart, but a household medium nonetheless. The collection is only two-thirds complete, but at the same time Franck also wrote the <Trois Chorals> which are very much for the Grand Orgue, and of which Nos. 2 and 3 are presented here. Franck began life as a concert pianist, and for a novelty, we have redacted part of an earlier organ composition, his <Prélude, Fugue, et Variation> as if it had originated at the piano, or even the cembalo. Though Belgian by birth, Franck is regarded as the "Father of the French Romantic Organ School," and our program proceeds with music by some of his most illustrious successors. Vierne and Dupré became bitter enemies, quarreling over the mistranslation of a syllable; Alain, a pupil of Dupré, was murdered by the Nazis at age 29; Messiaen was a black-sheep pupil of Dupré, and became the most original composer of the century; Cochereau was a white-sheep pupil of Dupré, and was regarded as one of the world's foremost improvisateurs in the hyper-Romantic style; Leguay was a pupil of Messiaen, a successor to Vierne and Cochereau as organist titulaire de Notre-Dame-de-Paris, and is one of the deepest musical thinkers of our time. With some hubris, I have contributed the customary final improvisation, in the form of a four-movement sonata.
  
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  • PROGRAMME •
  I. César Franck: Sept Pièces, Chorals 2–3, Prélude (Tracks 1–4)
  II. Louis Vierne: Messe basse pour les défunts (Tracks 5–10)
  III. Marcel Dupré: Cortège & Litanie (Track 11)
  IV. Jehan Alain: Scherzo, Introduction & Variations (Track 12)
  V. Pierre Cochereau: Boléro (improvisation ecritte) (Track 13)
  V. Olivier Messiaen: Joie et Clarté des Corps Glorieux (Track 14)
  VI. Olivier Messiaen: Dieu parmi nous (Track 15)
  VI. Jean-Pierre Leguay: Trois Préludes (Track 16) ... more
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