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Vol.2: Choral no.2 in B minor (1890) // Six pieces: (1860-1862) - Fantasie in C major, op.16 / Grande piece Symphonique, op.17
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Vol.3: Choral no.3 in A minor (1890) // Six pieces: (1860-1862) - Priere, op.20 / Prelude, Fugue et Variation, op.18 / Pastorale, op.19 / Final, op.21
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Cavaille-Coll organ (1845) at L’Eglise de La Madeleine, Paris - Jeanne Demessieux, organist
Decca SDD 202-204 STEREO Recorded: 1959 - UK issued: 1969 - 1972 pressings/matrices: ZAL 8792-8797 -1K/-1K/-1K/-1K/-1K/-2K
New discs with minimal de-click plus slight treble enhancement . Sleeve-notes + EMG review / SRG Vol.7 review >>>
These LPs represent a milestone for this repertoire. Thanks you so much ! Can you fix pls the link for Vol.2........?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the long-service reward! My wishes granted at last. Also well done for overcoming your prejudice against Franck. You never know, you may yet get to like "Psyche". For some reason I didn't notice these until today - I must have been looking in the wrong place, so please don’t think me ungrateful; I am, very.
ReplyDeletecenturi is quite correct about the milestone: possibly the first stereo recordings on an appropriate organ by an appropriate performer. Andre Marchal was recorded in excellent sound at Saint-Eustache but in mono. Certainly these are very important performances and should never have been allowed to languish in the vaults.
andrew smith
I knew something was nagging me about the dates: They were recorded in 1959, but these SDDs were not issued until ten years later. I don't know if they had been issued earlier, but the SDDs are the ones I remember.
ReplyDeleteAS
They are available on CD from 'Festivo' ..originally French Decca, it appears, in 1960
ReplyDeletehttp://www.festivo.nl/catalogue/fecd155156
I suppose 'one could get used' to Franck - but some of these works sounded like mating Sea-Lions...too much bass register (nice for body massaging: despite the swift roll-off below 50Hz).
I usually link from the main blog - but Vol.2 needs a wet-clean due to slight 'surface contamination' on the outer LP edge - which the de-click will not disguise - so there will be a delay due to other commitments - and may add the Franck side from LXT 2578 (never on CD?) which definitely requires 'noise removal' (and which I declined to do when I transferred her Bach some years back..).
In any event these are superior to the Mercury/Dupre - which was utterly dire !!!!
Mating sea lions! Never heard that one before! Anyway, thank you!
DeleteWhat was your objection to the Mercurys, the sound , the surfaces, the organ or the performance? I think Dupre gave them the Chorals that sense of forward momentum which they need. So many performances get bogged down in detail. The New York organ was rather fierce, and the recording a little too close for my taste. We must also remember that Franck never lived to correct the proofs or even revise his thoughts, and Dupre made his own edition (fewer pauses, for example), and he is, for me, far more conscious of musical line than a certain currently celebrated French organist, who seems to be more interested in showing off his technique than serving the composer.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about the CDs. - wasn't Festivo a Philips mid-price label, and has it been farmed out? I wonder what else is lurking out there.
AS
Thanks for uploading Vol 2. I don't think I've ever heard the 2nd Choral start with that particular choice of registration: not so much sea lions as whales booming through ocean trenches. I'm not sure I've ever heard it played so slowly either - no ordinary performance, but one rethought anew. I took the opportunity of downloading the Francescatti/Casadesus as well, which I had overlooked previously - I'm looking forward to that. very grateful.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Smith
It did seem 'subterranean' (bassy stuff, mostly - and near intolerable, to Moi..) - and when I saw 15mins of 'doodling' to endure on the 'Grande Piece'..well...I decided to look at other sites whilst listening..only a tiny number of near invisible edits to then attend to..
DeleteI had visions (...) of Franck, on his knees, in some gloomy church - vague flashbacks of Parisian Barrel-Organs - and then awakes with the 'blinding revelation' (noisy..) bit..
By odd coincidence I'd had a gander @ the original 78's of the Franck Piano Quintet (Cortot/International SQ) beforehand..and Sonata (Cortot/Thibaud)
somethings going on with the Gr. Piece Symphonique with Zippy right now, says it cant find the file. will try later. thanks muchly for these.
ReplyDeleteYou won't have much luck as I deleted the 2x Zippy files a few hours back!!! (initially Mega showed 'Queued' for several hours - and Zippy won't allow 200+MB files (the 3x zip is 210MB, as with Vol.3).
DeleteSorry about that - but although there are 100-odd downloads of Vol.1 I'm not assuming these are long-term viable on Zippy..
that's OK, got the copies from Mega. Did any of these three receive full-price release on London or Decca? I only first remember seeing them as London Stereo Treasury LPs. (Probably Ace of Diamonds in GB).
ReplyDeleteAt least you didn't complain that you couldn't download from Mega!
DeleteWhy don't you download the Decca discographies from CHARM - the details are there - I simply copy them...it shows the 3x releases Original French/SDD + STS in 1972.
I'm assuming these are Decca UK engineered due to the 'ZAL' matrices - unless Decca counted their French operation as 'home'.
never complain!! doesnt matter which site is used. Thanks, I will check CHARM.
ReplyDeleteCould get Volume 2; many thanks again for sharing these precious recordings. La Madeleine is a huge place with a difficult acoustic. The organ there is so accurate for that repertoire and the transfer sounds great.
ReplyDeleteCertainly has a long 'echo'.
DeleteUnfortunately I don't have her 1956 Decca LXT (or ACL reissue) of the 3 Choral's.
Would've uploaded, sometime, a Ducretet-Thomson of Gaston Litaize @ S.Merri in Couperin's M.Solennelle - but the 1954 LP is groove-damaged in loud sections..
Thanks so much for providing these!
ReplyDeleteI am however having no luck downloading volume 3 from Mega. Never had any issues from Mega before. Tried three browsers on two computers, so not sure if anyone else is having a problem. Just thought I'd mention it in case others are having issues.
Thanks again for everything you have provided!
Litaize/Eglise Saint-Merri......very promising........
ReplyDeleteWould be - but the groove damage is too severe in some of the loud parts (LP 'looks' mint)...so 're-building' the waveform would be time-consuming/possibly not 'invisible', either.
DeleteI think the Francis Chapelet/St.Severin recital (attractive music/organ!) of Clerambault/Grigny/Marchand/Guilain was recorded 1963 - but with Concert Hall I'm never certain (as with Vox/Turnabout) - it's SMSC 2468 - maybe on CD - not really checked..
Thanks a lot for your amazing Demessieux records. Mega gives errors when trying to get vol 3. Does it need re-upload ?
ReplyDeleteVolume 3 (my 'favourite' - at least Choral 3 is..) is now re-uploaded.
DeleteBit of a nuisance that you now need to remove that Mega Extension message in order to download; but this file seems OK
Thanks for posting these, tho' I fear I find Franck's organ music a glorious noise, great amorphous washes of sound that don't really "go" anywhere. Confirms my preference for baroque.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this tribute! I heard Maurice Duruflé, Jean Langlais, André Marchal in some of these pieces and I must say she has a unique" phrasé"
ReplyDeletetake care, Thomas
The interest in these has rather exceeded any 'expectations' I may have had!
ReplyDeleteShe certainly makes a better case for this music than, eg, the Cochereau/Notre-Dame Philip's disc (c.1967) I have; but, TBH, would rather listen to Vierne..(and Brahms;, the Kurt Rapf/Turnabout LP being my near favourite organ recording)..
Thanks for the re-upload
ReplyDeleteThank you for uploading the Demessiuex Franck LPs. Colourful performances, indeed, with lots of shifts in registration. I liked the 2nd Choral. The beginning is very slow and enticing. I compared it to the 1960s recording of the great Fernando Germani (EMI CDs) - the overall timing is similar. And thank you for the quality transfers on all of your blogs. I was much frustrated by the notice 'permission denied' the last two days. I guess you got so few responses these days just because the contact address of your blog has not been visible when permission was denied, and people did not know how to contact you via blog or email.
ReplyDeleteI'll put that down to 'a failed experiment' - but anyway wanted to tidy-up the blogs/files..and had intended keeping the blogs closed for a week - but apart from a few re-uploads am not sure there will be much more here!
DeleteI really should have done '6month blogs' - so half the year was free from doing these transfers (but slight 'de-click' made this post very quick to do - apart from actually listening to the 2hours of material!)
The only Franck/Germani I have is the Heroique @ Selby Abbey - not an album I've really listened to - it also includes Reger - who appears as a complete 1969 LP on Philips Fourfront @ Westminster Cathedral - definitely not listened to that as dislike Reger's Organ music - also have Brian Runnett's Reger @ Norwich in that series.. though really like Germani's style (the 1970 Archiv/Frescobaldi,etc, LP I used to have on the blogs was absolutely superb)
Many thanks!
ReplyDelete