The French Symphonic Organ At Artisten by Jacques Van Oortmerssen

Various composers

Jacques Van Oortmerssen

The French Symphonic Organ At Artisten

Price: € 12.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917204827
Catnr: CC 72048
Release date: 03 July 2006
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917204827

Catalogue number
CC 72048

Release date
03 July 2006

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

The repertoire on this CD is composed for the French symphonic organ, which is developed by master organ builder Aristide Cavaíllé-Coll (1811-1899). He dominated the organ art in France with developing a new organ, inspired on the symphonic orchestra. Jacques van Oortmerssen continues his CD oeuvre with organ music on Challenge Classics with a recording on the symphonic organ (Verschueren) in Artisten, Göteborg.

Orgelstukken op Frans symfonie orgel prachtig uitgevoerd
Op dit album staan stukken die zijn gecomponeerd voor het Franse symfonie orgel dat is ontwikkeld door meesterorgelbouwer Artistide Cavaíllé-Coll (1811-1899). Hij domineerde de orgelkunst in Frankrijk door het maken van een nieuw orgel dat is gebaseerd op het symfonieorkest. Jacques van Oortmerssen droeg bij aan dit repertoire met orgelmuziek met deze opname die hij maakte op het symfonieorgel (Verschüren) in Artisten, Göteborg.

Jacques van Oortmerssen werd geboren in 1950 in Rotterdam en was docent orgel op conservatoria in Amsterdam, Göteborg, Lyon en Helsinki en is gastdocent geweest op universiteiten van over de hele wereld. Zijn vertolkingen van Bach en vroegere muziek hebben hem wijdverspreide roem vergaard. Naast werken van oude muziek heeft hij ook zijn eigen werken opgenomen. Op dit album laat hij een interessante combinatie horen van orgel en symfonieorkest, wederom prachtig en virtuoos uitgevoerd.

Artist(s)

Jacques van Oortmerssen

Jacques van Oortmerssen (Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1950) studied at the Conservatory of Rotterdam, where he completed his soloist diplomas for both the organ, as a student of André Verwoerd, and for piano as a student of Elly Salomé. Thereafter he undertook postgraduate study with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris (France). He was awarded the Prix d’ Excellence in 1976. In 1977 he won first prize in the National Improvisation Competition in Bolsward (NL) and was runner-up in the Tournemire Prize in St Albans (England). He has been professor of organ at the Conservatory of Amsterdam (NL) since 1979, where his organ class attracts students from many countries. In 1982 he succeeded Gustav Leonhardt as Organiste Titulaire of the Waalse kerk in Amsterdam, where he plays the famous 1734...

Jacques van Oortmerssen (Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1950) studied at the Conservatory of Rotterdam, where he completed his soloist diplomas for both the organ, as a student of André Verwoerd, and for piano as a student of Elly Salomé. Thereafter he undertook postgraduate study with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris (France). He was awarded the Prix d’ Excellence in 1976.
In 1977 he won first prize in the National Improvisation Competition in Bolsward (NL) and was runner-up in the Tournemire Prize in St Albans (England). He has been professor of organ at the Conservatory of Amsterdam (NL) since 1979, where his organ class attracts students from many countries. In 1982 he succeeded Gustav Leonhardt as Organiste Titulaire of the Waalse kerk in Amsterdam, where he plays the famous 1734 Christian Müller organ. Jacques van Oortmerssen enjoys an international reputation as both soloist and pedagogue, in which context he is regularly invited to teach at Universities and Conservatories throughout the world.
He has been leader of the Falun Organ Academy in Falun (Sweden) for many years since 1984, was Betts Fellow in Organ Studies at the University of Oxford (England) during the 1993-1994 academic year and Associate Professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (Finland) during the 1994-1995 academic year. He will receive an honorary doctorate at this academy in June 2012.
Jacques van Oortmerssen was a regular guest professor of organ at the Lyon Conservatory (France) between 1999 and 2004, and he has also been a guest professor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (England) and during many years at the Conservatory in Göteborg (Sweden). In addition he has been a member of the advisory board of the Göteborg Organ Art Centre (GOArt) at the University of Gothenburg. As soloist Jacques van Oortmerssen regularly performs throughout Europe, North and South America, Africa, Japan and South Korea and is frequently invited at prestigious international festivals sucu as the BBC Proms in London (England), the Prague (Czech Republic) Spring Festival, the Bach Festival in Leipzig (Germany) and the City of London Festival. He is well known for his interpretations of early music and in particular of music of J.S. Bach.
Jacques van Oortmerssen is also active as a composer and conductor.
As a recording artist, van Oortmerssen has featured on more than 50 CD releases for prominent international labels, as well as broadcasting on both radio and television.
Among the recordings he made are the complete works of C.P.E. Bach and Johannes Brahms as well as a series of records of J.S. Bach’s organ music, already having released nine volumes.
Jacques van Oortmerssen has been actively involved with the art of organ building in the broadest sense since 1970. Through his international career he intensively used and examined many organs, both historical and new, all over the world. As an organ expert he guides both restorations of historical instruments and constructions of new instruments.
Jacques van Oortmerssen is one of the inspirators of the Göteborg Organ Art Centre (GOArt) at the University of Gothenburg. This centre is committed to improve the quality of the art of organ building, both in restoring historic instruments and building new instruments, having built up a huge international reputation in doing so. Therefore interdisciplinary research is being conducted here in which musical instrument builders, musicians, organologists, technologists and musicologists cooperate on an international level. Thus the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg carries out important research on different aspects of historical organ building in the field of metallurgy, thermo-dynamics and acoustics.
As a result of these efforts two large projects have been realized, of which the North German Organ Research Project particularly caused an international stir.
Jacques van Oortmerssen believes the current profile of ‘omniscient advisor’ to now be obsolete. The complexity of restoring organs and the diversity of the historic patrimony demand a different approach in which the organ advisor will increasingly develop into a leader of a team of specialists.

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Composer(s)

Jehan Alain

César Franck

César Franck was simultaneously a child prodigy and a late bloomer. His parents quickly discovered his enormous talent, but they were mostly interested in the money and fame that he might generate. Because of this, he was presented as a piano virtuoso, without a focus on composition. Unfortunately, his virtuoso career was less promising then they had hoped, and he started earning his money more as a teacher and organist. Composing stayed in the background, but in the mean time he did get some notable students, such as Henri Duparc. After a while, a sort of "Franck school" of students arose, albeit against his will, who affectionately called him ‘Pater seraphicus’. It was not until he was 50 before he started to receive some acclaim as a composer, and from his 52nd he started a very prolific period, lasting until his death at the age of 68.
Nowadays, Franck is mostly known for his instrumental music, peaking at the famous Violin Sonata in A. Besides this work,, his small collection of organ works was particularly influential.

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Marcel Dupré

Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, conductor, pianist and organist. He was a musical prodigy, writing his first pieces of music at the age of four and making his concert debut at the age of ten. During this concert he astonished the audience by playing one of the 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven at its request. After his studying at the Conservatory of Paris he followed a career as a church organist at Saint-Merri and later La Madeleine in Paris. He was also a successful freelance composer and pianist in France and abroad.
Saint-Saëns initially helped to introduce German composers such as Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner in France. However, from 1870 onwards anti-German sentiments began to arise in France as a result of the Franco-Prussian War, which enhanced support for the idea of a pro-French musical society. In 1871 Saint-Saëns consequently founded the Société Nationale de Musique together with Romain Bussine, that was devoted to the promotion of French music and organised concerts on which young composers could perform their works.
Saint-Saëns was a keen traveler, and made 179 trips to 27 different countries during his life. He favoured Algeria and Egypt, were he gained inspiration for compositions such as the Suite Algérienne and the Fifth Piano Concerto, also known as The Egyptian.
Saint-Saëns' best-known works include the First Cello Concerto, Third Symphony, the opera Samson et Dalila, Danse Macabre and Le carnaval des animaux, a humorous suite in which various animals are musically portrayed. However, he never wanted the last work to be performed, since it was contrary to his image as a serious composer.

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Charles-Marie Widor

His father was organist in the St-François-de-Sales church and his grandfather was a builder of organs for the Callinet firm, and so the young Charles-Marie received organ lessons from an early age. He did so well that at the age of 11, he could already replace his father at the church organ. In 1863, he moved to Brussels to study with Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens at the request of the French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Widor moved to Paris in 1870, where he became the titular organist of the Saint-Sulpice, again aided by Cavaillé-Coll, who built the organ, and requested Widor for a trial period; a trial period which ended up lastig 64 years. Widor succeeded Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély, who died earlier. With this new state-of-the-art organ,...

With this new state-of-the-art organ, Widor thought it called for a new kind of organ music, and so he invented the so-called organ symphony. He wrote ten of them, of which the last two were called the "Gothic" and the "Roman" symphonies. He made particular clever use of Gregorian theme's to give them a religious character. With his symphonies, he drove both the organist and the organ to its furthest corners. And as a renowned musician, he also attracted a group of followers. Being a teacher himself, he was more than happy to transfer his skills and knowledge. His most famous students are Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, Henri Mulet, and Marcel Dupré. The last of whom succeeded him at the Saint-Sulpice.

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