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Throughout her distinguished career, Marie-Claire Alain performed with virtuosity and taste, balancing the organ's gaudier aspects with subtlety and scholarly insights. These performances demonstrate her bravura playing, but her carefully chosen registrations and aversion to excessive effects make these toccatas clean and relatively free of bombast. Alain takes Bach's celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor at a brisk clip, letting the music's inherent drama unfold without exaggerated pauses. Widor's equally familiar toccata receives an energetic reading, though its knuckle-busting ostinati and staccato chords cause Alain a few moments of hesitancy. The toccatas by Dubois and Gigout are minor but entertaining pieces. Boëllmann's Suite Gothique is massive and Alain's control is put to good use because this heavy-handed music would become bloated without her restraint. However, Guilmant's Finale to his Sonata No. 1 defies her attempts at moderation and is romantically grandiose. Vierne's evocative "Carillon de Westminster" and Toccata in B minor are in the same vein, though they are less ostentatious. Albert Alain's Toccata on Cantemus Domino is a lyrical setting of the chant and surprisingly subdued for a showpiece. Saved for an overpowering conclusion is Jehan Alain's ecstatic Litanies, always a breathtaking experience in his sister's faithful performances.
© TiVo
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Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer - Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd A Warner Classics/Erato Disques release, ℗ 1994 Warner Music UK Limited
Charles-Marie Widor, Composer - Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd ℗ 1994 Erato Disques S.A.
Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist - Theodore DUBOIS, Composer
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd ℗ 1994 Erato Disques S.A.
Eugène Gigout, Composer - Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd ℗ 1994 Erato Disques S.A.
Léon Böellmann, Composer - Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd A Warner Classics/Erato Disques release, ℗ 1994 Warner Music UK Limited
Léon Böellmann, Composer - Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd A Warner Classics/Erato Disques release, ℗ 1994 Warner Music UK Limited
Léon Böellmann, Composer - Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd A Warner Classics/Erato Disques release, ℗ 1994 Warner Music UK Limited
Léon Böellmann, Composer - Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd A Warner Classics/Erato Disques release, ℗ 1994 Warner Music UK Limited
Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist - Alexandre GUILMANT, Composer
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd ℗ 1994 Erato Disques S.A.
Louis Vierne, Composer - Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd A Warner Classics/Erato Disques release, ℗ 1994 Warner Music UK Limited
Louis Vierne, Composer - Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd ℗ 1994 Erato Disques S.A.
Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist - Albert Alain, Composer
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd ℗ 1994 Erato Disques S.A.
Marie-Claire Alain, Organ, MainArtist - Jehan ALAIN, Composer
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd ℗ 1994 Erato Disques S.A.
Album review
Throughout her distinguished career, Marie-Claire Alain performed with virtuosity and taste, balancing the organ's gaudier aspects with subtlety and scholarly insights. These performances demonstrate her bravura playing, but her carefully chosen registrations and aversion to excessive effects make these toccatas clean and relatively free of bombast. Alain takes Bach's celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor at a brisk clip, letting the music's inherent drama unfold without exaggerated pauses. Widor's equally familiar toccata receives an energetic reading, though its knuckle-busting ostinati and staccato chords cause Alain a few moments of hesitancy. The toccatas by Dubois and Gigout are minor but entertaining pieces. Boëllmann's Suite Gothique is massive and Alain's control is put to good use because this heavy-handed music would become bloated without her restraint. However, Guilmant's Finale to his Sonata No. 1 defies her attempts at moderation and is romantically grandiose. Vierne's evocative "Carillon de Westminster" and Toccata in B minor are in the same vein, though they are less ostentatious. Albert Alain's Toccata on Cantemus Domino is a lyrical setting of the chant and surprisingly subdued for a showpiece. Saved for an overpowering conclusion is Jehan Alain's ecstatic Litanies, always a breathtaking experience in his sister's faithful performances.
© TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 13 track(s)
- Total length: 01:07:00
- 1 Digital booklet
- Main artists: Marie-Claire Alain
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: Warner Classics International
- Genre: Classical
© 2011 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd ℗ 1994, 2000 Erato Disques S.A.
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