Olivier Sebian

As well as being the promoter of the piano recital and creator of the symphonic poem, Franz Liszt was also a prodigious innovator in the organ repertory. Olivier Latry - resident organist on the great organ of Notre-Dame-de-Paris for more than thirty-five years - has recorded five of his pieces on the Rieger organ of the Philharmonie de Paris, including the three major published works for the instrument, fleshed out with transcriptions and arrangements.

A highly prolific composer, Giovanni Legrenzi practised his art in oratorios and other works for the church, as well as in opera and chamber music. In fact he explored all the musical genres of his period, taking over the baton handed on by Gabrieli and Monteverdi, and enjoying an enviable reputation among his contemporaries. Better known during his lifetime (1626-1690) for his operas rather than for his religious music, Legrenzi was widely admired and copied all over Europe.

"Johann Sebastian Bach used the recorder in two Brandenburg concertos and some twenty cantatas and oratorios, but alas, he left us no sonata with harpsichord," say Julien Martin and Olivier Fortin. Arranging chamber music for a variety of instrumental ensembles was a widespread practice in the eighteenth century. Bach himself seems to have created a number of works that did not necessarily require the use of a specific instrument. Here Julien Martin and Olivier Fortin, musical partners for many years, present the Sonata in F major, originally written for transverse flute and continuo, transcriptions of the Trio Sonata for organ No. 3 in E minor , the Partita for violin No. 2 in G minor, and the Chorale 'Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland', whose extensive ornamental flourishes elongate and transform the chorale melody to the point of rendering it unrecognisable.

When François Couperin published his Mass for the Convents in 1690, he had just turned 20, yet he had created the most exceptional collection of organ music to be written during the reign of Louis XIV. On the magnificent and historic Great Organ of the Royal Chapel of Versailles, over which Couperin presided from 1693 to 1730, the celebrated organist of Notre-Dame de Paris, Olivier Latry, performs a sumptuous version of this Organ Mass which, in a world premiere, is interlaced with captivating Chants sur le Livre, those sublime holy improvisations unique to French baroque music… for a moment of eternity.

Original melodies by pianist and composer Louis Dominique Roy get their first airing on Rêves enclos, a new recording with baritone Olivier Laquerre. Roy’s songs are set to poems by some of Québec’s greatest poets, including Émile Nelligan, Alfred DesRochers, Arthur de Bussières, Hector de Saint-Denys-Garneau, and Gilles Vigneault. The composer accompanies Laquerre on these Québécois melodies, several of which also feature Sébastien Lépine, cello, and Louis-Philippe Marsolais, horn.

The orchestral suite, sometimes simply called ‘overture’ because of the imposing dimensions of its opening movement, enjoyed great popularity in the early eighteenth century, especially in central Germany. Bach had discovered the genre in his youth and cultivated it until his late period in Leipzig. This recording assembles his four overture-suites, including the famous Suite no.2 BWV 1067, which belongs among the late works. Numerous copying errors in the instrumental parts suggest that this piece was originally written a tone lower – in A minor – and therefore probably for a solo instrument other than the transverse flute: in the present recording, this first version, reconstructed from the clues mentioned above, is performed with solo oboe.

César Franck’s studies in Liège concentrated mostly on musical training (musical theory, harmony and counterpoint), restricting his instrumental study to the piano alone. However, when he entered the Paris Conservatoire he broadened his horizons to study the organ. While studying in François Benoist’s class, he did not develop a very self-confident technique (furthermore, the organ pedalboard was limited to twenty pedals and did not allow for the performance of the classic repertoire). However, to his great benefit, he forged a complete career as an improviser; a field in which he excelled until his final years. This course began in 1819 and was intended to train liturgical organists. Above all, it focused on the treatment of plainsong, fugue and freeform themes, and it was not before 1852 that performance of a written piece was required. Against this background, the young musician only learned about performance in a very self-taught way. So, in 1872, when he himself was teaching at the Conservatoire, his approach to Bach did not concern itself with style or technique, reducing his aspirations to a performance which Vierne himself called rather rudimentary, being, “in time and without mistakes.”

Reinvented for cello and piano by two artists whose reputation is unequivocal, these Images oubliées paint a timeless portrait of a musical legend.