Bach to the Future gained considerable publicity from being the last recording made on the 1868 Cavaillé-Coll organ at Notre-Dame cathedral before the devastating fire of 2019. It might just as well, however, have become renowned if there had been no fire: it is one of the most exciting organ releases of recent years. Organist Olivier Latry became titulaire des grands orgues at Notre-Dame in 1985, when he was just 23, but he has lost none of his youthful brashness, indicated perhaps by the album's punning title. Latry explains his ideas in an interesting an readable accompanying note. More than in any other genre of classical music, a performance of an organ work is an interpretation by the player, who shapes its basic textures. Latry takes this idea and develops it, using stops that did not exist in Bach's time. Furthermore, he has familiarized himself with arrangements of Bach's organ works made for other media, including Leopold Stokowski's crowd-pleasing orchestral version of the Toccata and fugue in D minor, BWV 565, and Liszt's version of the Fantasy and Fugue, BWV 542 (presented here as two separate tracks, for Latry is unconvinced that they were meant as a unit). Latry incorporates sonorities of these into his organ performances; sample the blazing Toccata and fugue, a real thrill that, like everything else on the album, is recorded to the hilt. The result is an organ album of almost unprecedented textural breadth and brilliance. Latry has other unusual ideas, such as the organ performance of the six-part ricercar from the Musical Offering, BWV 1079, at the beginning, plunging the listener into a murky world of complexity, and the narrative treatment of the Passacaglia and fugue in C minor, BWV 582. Yet more is there for the listener to discover, all of it part of the story of the great Notre-Dame organ that will, thankfully, be ongoing.© TiVo

Les Siècles is one of France's finest early music ensembles, and its work in repertoire from the Baroque era to the Romantic period is fascinating for its precision, attention to historical details, and most of all, commitment to original instrumentation. This live album of Camille Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3 in C minor, "Organ," and the Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor offers a close-up presentation of Les Siècles' methods and sounds, and the interpretations by conductor François-Xavier Roth, pianist Jean-François Heisser, and organist Daniel Roth give a clear idea of what they and the ensemble deliver as authentic Romantic sound. In these performances, the orchestra is chamber size, the strings play with minimal vibrato, the woodwinds have a slightly pungent quality, and the brass have a distinct cutting edge, unlike modern instruments. Yet there is a striking imbalance when the organ and percussion are heard in the last half of the symphony, due to the extremely reverberant space of Sainte-Sulpice, Paris. The orchestra seems tiny in comparison with the tremendous volume of the full Cavaillé-Coll organ, while the timpani and bass drum create an enormous roar that might be thrilling for anyone seeking a big noise, but unnecessarily explosive for admirers of this work. The balance of forces is much better in the concerto, which was recorded in the drier acoustics of the Opéra Comique, Paris, and the finer points of the playing and the instruments can be heard more clearly. While this disc is unlikely to supplant recordings of cherished modern performances of these works, it's worth hearing to get an idea of the colors Saint-Saëns had to work with. Harmonia Mundi's sound is clean and focused, except where the acoustics blur the sound. © TiVo

After recording Rachmaninov's 24 Preludes and a recital dedicated to Claude Debussy for his new publisher harmonia mundi, pianist Nikolai Lugansky extends his repertoire even further with a monographic album dedicated solely to César Franck. The list of piano works by this organ-playing composer was not very extensive, so Lugansky chose to perform the Prelude, Fugue and Variation Op. 18, and theChorale No. 2 , on the piano, both in the same key. Written specifically for the piano, the two triptychs Prélude, Choral et Fugue and Prélude, Aria et Final are inspired by both Bach and Liszt and had an obvious influence on later French music, particularly with Albéric Magnard (Symphony No. 3) and all the way up to Francis Poulenc (Concerto for organ ). Nikolai Lugansky constructs these pieces like a builder, with unfailing solidity. He brings out the architecture and the projections with power and fullness, while looking for what he calls "a French sound, a beauty of sonority and refined sound without lourdeur". © François Hudry/Qobuz

The choral music of Domenico Scarlatti is almost unknown, a mere footnote to the hundreds of concise yet radically innovative keyboard sonatas that were among the first works of the late Baroque/early Classical period to receive frequent performances. This disc from Belgium's Ricercar label, with a truly pan-European group of singers called Vox Luminis, is labeled as a performance of the Scarlatti Stabat Mater (less familiar even than that of his father, Alessandro Scarlatti), but it actually includes four choral works of various kinds, plus two keyboard sonatas played on the organ. All, except for the opening Te Deum laudamus, are as conservative as the keyboard sonatas are radical -- polyphonic, rarely operatic, and drawing on aspects of Renaissance music and styles of the early Baroque. They may have been early works, written in Rome before Scarlatti's departure for the Iberian peninsula, but this is not certain. What's most striking is that, although conservative, the music shows a good deal of Scarlatti's characteristic imagination. Consider the Stabat Mater itself, specified as a setting for 10 voices and continuo. That would lead the listener to expect two choirs of five voices each, or some other subdivision, but that's not the case; it's an actual 10-part polyphonic setting of the text, with constantly shifting configurations of the 10 voices, a moving setting of "Juxta crucem" in which onlookers seem to add their voices in mourning, and a slam-bang finale in which all spring into action to depict the soul "inflamed and burning" at the day of judgment and its ascent into the "glory of Paradise." Vox Luminis has a rather dry sound with one voice per part -- normally undesirable in music where choirs were available, and destructive of the contrasts in the four-voice Miserere that closes the program, with its alternation among choral, solo, and chant sections. In the Stabat Mater, however, it works quite well in clarifying the complex textures of the work. Recommended for those enamored of Domenico Scarlatti's peculiar genius, especially those tolerant of one-voice-per-part approaches. © TiVo

The first-ever survey on record of the complete surviving output by a significant contemporary of Rameau: a missing piece in the jigsaw of the French Baroque. Christophe Moyreau (1700-1774) was born and died in the city of Orleans, and perhaps one reason why he never attained the fame of contemporaries such as Couperin and Rameau was that he never occupied posts in the French capital. Too much of his career is still shrouded in mystery, but he listed his occupation as "organist" in the marriage register of his home church in 1726 – becoming father to 11 children over the next 18 years – and at some point he became titular organist at the important Church of Saint-Aignan before taking up the post as organist of the cathedral in 1737. It seems to have been the lengthy restoration of the cathedral’s organ which prompted Moyreau in 1753 to gather together much of his previously composed music into six books of Pièces de clavecin. He published them in two volumes during a lengthy period of what would otherwise have been enforced inactivity; he also wrote and issued a small but influential teaching manual in the same year. The 126 separate pieces in the six books are remarkably varied in style but consistent in quality of invention. There are dances and character-pieces, organised into long suites, but also standalone overtures, sonatas and a solo concerto. The last of the suites concludes with a grand evocation of the bells of Orleans which has become his best-known work. The second volume includes six "simphonies" for harpsichord, also recorded here by Fernando de Luca, making this set by far the most comprehensive collection of Moyreau’s music ever released. © Brilliant Classics

Jean-Baptiste Dupont is one of the most renowned organists of our time. His artistic prowess is reflected in his success at international competitions as well as his performing career across the globe. Trained in the French organ tradition, both in interpretation and improvisation, his new recording of Widor’s 8th Organ Symphony combines this tradition with the sound-world of a Cavaillé-Coll organ: the instrument at Saint-Sernin (Toulouse) seems to be custom-made for the most complex work by Widor who confessed that without the experience of listening to the Cavaillé-Coll instruments he would not have written any organ music. Jean-Baptiste Dupont is deeply rooted in the heritage of the French music tradition. His extensive expertise as an improviser leads to a particular state of consciousness within music: when interpreting repertoire works, he grasps and analyses the creative structures of the work on a deep level; in the moment of the performance, he experiences them like an improviser – the creative process of the composer becomes his own when he plays. © Audite

Those with more time than money may find this an optimal reference set of Bach's complete organ music. There are organists who have produced more monumental readings of Bach (Helmut Walcha) and livelier ones (Ton Koopman), but those of Belgian organist Bernard Foccroulle are in the main straightforward, clear, and intelligent in terms of long-range structure. The chief attraction here is the scope of the project: Foccroulle made these recordings between 1982 and 1997 (remastering smooths out the sonic developments of the period reasonably well) on a variety of organs, many of them in northern Germany. They correspond as closely as possible to what Bach would have known, but Foccroulle also takes into account that Bach liked novel instruments. The 16 CDs of the set are each devoted to individual organs, and while the booklet gives some attention to the instruments Bach knew at various stages in his career, there's no systematic attempt to fit musical and instrumental chronologies together, or to tie either of them to a genre; each disc offers a self-contained program. This is desirable; few buyers will have time for a 16-disc listening session, but the contents can be sampled in many ways. Best of all is the price of this release by Belgium's Ricercar label: between three and four dollars (or euros) per disc. Competitive all the way around.© TiVo

Harmonia Mundi's Bach: Alio modo features esteemed period viol consort Fretwork performing keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach as adapted by group leader Richard Boothby. The idea of playing Bach on a viol consort would have been a little retro for the composer, who was a capable violinist himself and regularly led groups that were among the predecessors of modern orchestras. Bach's flowing contrapuntal lines lie well on these instruments, and in terms of getting his counterpoint across, this setting works, although a good organist or harpsichordist is perfectly capable of achieving the same end in this music. Not every listener can stand to listen to a recording of a pipe organ at home, as it reminds them of being in church, and others may share actress Joan Crawford's alleged disdain of the harpsichord. Perhaps this is the audience Fretwork is hoping to reach -- indeed, a listener afflicted with such inclinations would be missing out on some of Bach's finest musical utterances. The playing here is fabulous, as smooth as silk and perfectly in tune, although it's odd to hear a viol consort in music that is so "tonal," as much of the standard literature for viol consorts predates the regular establishment of keys, tending toward modality and therefore sounding harmonically thornier. Sometimes the purity of the tonality lends a harmonium-like "wheezing squeezebox" sound to the proceedings, and the lack of vibrato employed by Fretwork seems a little alien to Bach. Nevertheless, as a recording Bach: Alio modo is very easy on the ears; it is like a very still pool with ripples slowly radiating out from the center. And toward the end of the disc, two pieces from The Musical Offering are played, and as this openly scored work is well-established among ensembles of string players, we find ourselves nearing a somewhat familiar shore toward the end of the disc. Reviewing a disc such as Bach: Alio modo is potentially a hot potato; one doesn't want to damn it with too faint a praise, as it is a very fine recording. Should the public discover it, then Bach: Alio modo deserves to do well in the marketplace. Hard-core fans of J.S. Bach are probably not going to dig this one; to many of them it will fall somewhere in between the work of Ferruccio Busoni and the Windham Hill compilation The Bach Variations. Look for Fretwork's Bach: Alio modo to become a hot topic over the classical music water coolers of the world; perhaps one should not risk being left out of the conversation. © TiVo