Composer: Charles Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer: Michele Savino
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Brilliant Classics
Release: 2021
Size: 4.71 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Fantaisie No. 1 in E-Flat Major
02. Bénédiction nuptiale in F Major, Op. 9
3 Rhapsodies on Bretons Themes, Op. 7
03. I. Rhapsodie No. 1
04. II. Rhapsodie No. 2
05. III. Rhapsodie No. 3
06. Theme, Variations & Choral on le dies Irae
07. Fantaisie No. 2 in D-Flat Major, Op. 101
08. Marche religieuse in F Major, Op. 107
09. Offertoire
9 Pieces for Organ or Harmonium
10. I. Marche – Cortège
11. II. Interlude – Fugué
12. III. Offertoire
13. IV. Procession
14. V. Elévation
15. VI. Offertoire
16. VII. Ave Verum
17. VIII. Offertoire
18. IX. Elévation
19. Prélude in F Major
20. Verset No. 1 in E Minor
21. Verset No. 2 in in F Major – Andante
22. Élévation, or Communion in E Major, Op. 13
23. Prélude in C Major
24. Cyprès, Op. 156
25. Choral – Prélude sur o salutaris Hostia
26. Prelude in C Minor
27. Fantaisie No. 3 in C Major, Op. 157
3 Préludes and Fugues, Op. 99
28. I. Prélude in E Major
29. I. Fugue in E Major
30. II. Prélude in B Major
31. II. Fugue in B Major
32. III. Prélude in E-Flat Major
33. III. Fugue in E-Flat Major
3 Préludes and Fugues, Op. 109
34. I. Prélude in D Minor
35. I. Fugue in D Minor
36. II. Prélude in G Major
37. II. Fugue in G Major
38. III. Prélude in C Major
39. III. Fugue in C Major
7 Improvisations, Op. 150
40. I. Molto Lento
41. II. Feria Pentecostes
42. III. Poco Adagio
43. IV. Allegretto
44. V. Pro Martyribus
45. VI. Pro Defunctis
46. VII. Allegro Giocoso
The most complete collection ever issued of Saint-Saëns’s organ music: a newly recorded centenary tribute to the grand old man of 19th-century music, who rubbed shoulders with and aroused the admiration of colleagues from Berlioz to Ravel.
While himself no conventional kind of Christian believer, Saint-Saëns worked as a church organist for much of his prodigiously long life and career. While still a teenager he won the premier prix for organ at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1857, at the age of 22, he was appointed as titular organist to the church of the Madeleine in Paris, where he remained until 1877; it was there that Liszt heard him improvising and hailed him as the greatest organist in the world.
His output for the organ is no less subtly German-accented than much of his orchestral music, influenced by Schumann and Mendelssohn as well as disciplined by his comprehensive study of Bach and Beethoven as a child. While publically maintaining an attitude of scepticism towards Wagner, he nonetheless wrote with a chromatic intensity which finds a natural home in the incense-soaked world of pieces such as the Elévation et Communion and the E major Offertoire. Other reflective works include a trio of Rhapsodies on Breton themes, Op. 8, which invite comparison with similar folksong-based organ pieces by Vaughan Williams.
Saint-Saëns understood how to exploit the full spectrum of tonal colours available on the instruments designed by the greatest organ builder of his age, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, and even the apparently abstract designs of his many Preludes and Fugues invite the kind of swirling mists and brilliant sunshine evoked by Michele Savino on this newly recorded collection. The composer’s gifts as a colourist on the organ reach the summit of their expression in a collection of Seven Improvisations which, like much else here, deserves to be better known.
Born in Italy in 1978, now working principally in Germany, Michele Savino has recorded this collection on two German instruments: CD2 on the Forster and Andrews organ at the church of St John the Baptist, Forchheim, and the remainder on the Welte organ at the Church of Saint Boniface in the town of Emmendingen, Baden-Württemberg. This release marks his debut on Brilliant Classics.