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Tournemire - Complete Organ Music | Brilliant Classics 95983

Tournemire - Complete Organ Music

£14.51

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Label: Brilliant Classics

Cat No: 95983

Barcode: 5028421959832

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 4

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 11th September 2020

Contents

About

Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) ranks among the most important organ composers of the 20th century, writing in a language that drew for its expressive power on the centuries-old tradition of French organ music from Couperin to Franck, as well as the timbral innovations pioneered by the organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, anticipating in his boldest harmonic strokes and most perfumed textures the music of Olivier Messiaen.

However, while never exactly overlooked either by organists or listeners, Tournemire’s output has suffered somewhat in the shadow of more extrovert composer-performers such as Marcel Dupré and Messiaen. It takes a particularly refined sensibility as well as the right instrument and an unassailable technique to do his complex music full justice. The Dutch organist Tjeerd van der Ploeg has long been recognised as one of the composer’s most persuasive advocates, one of very few with the stamina and dedication to make a complete recording of the Orgue mystique project which was Tournemire’s life’s work. Alongside it, however, he composed many other suites and standalone pieces throughout his career, ranging from the brilliant Sortie, op.2, to the more ruminative pleasures of the Fioretti, op.60 (based on the sayings of St Francis of Assisi), and extended meditations on the Seven Last Words.

Van der Ploeg’s achievement is widely recognised by his fellow organists. Among the most celebrated of them was his fellow Dutchman Albert de Klerk, who wrote: ‘These are sounds for meditation and prayer. You will be gripped by this and will not let go. I have nothing but praise for Tjeerd van der Ploeg’s playing. This man understands Tournemire. His playing is flexible, the articulation is just right. His registrations are usually excellent. [...] The instrument has been chosen correctly, a great wealth of fundamental voices, reeds and silent solo registers.’

The present set reissues recordings made around the turn of the millennium on superb French instruments in Douai Abbey, Cambrai Cathedral and the church of Notre Dame d’Auteuil in Paris, with full specifications for each one listed in the booklet, which also prints contextual notes for each piece.

On their original release, these recordings attracted fulsome praise in the Dutch press.

‘Van der Ploeg plays with great imagination and accuracy.’ – Trouw

‘Tjeerd van der Ploeg plays the Mutin organ in the Saint-Pierre in Douai in an extremely imaginative manner and although he does not originate from the “Roman” tradition, he knows how to evoke the mystique of incense and pointed arches’ – Luister

‘An excellent interpretation of Tournemire’s subtle Impressionism, thanks to the clear recording and the tone-colours: enthusiastically recommended’
 – Nederlands Dagblad

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