Marie-Claire Alain
Marie-Claire Alain was the youngest child in a family of distinguished musicians, born August 10, 1926, in St. Germain-en Laye, a Paris suburb. Her father, Albert Alain, a composer and amateur organ builder, had been a pupil of Guilmant and Fauré. Her sister Odile was a promising soprano and pianist who lost her life early in a mountaineering accident; her older brother, Olivier, was a composer, pianist, and musicologist. Her oldest brother was the renowned Jehan Alain, a composer and organist whose teachers included Dupré, Dukas, and Jean Roger-Ducasse. He numbered Messiaen and Poulenc among his closest friends and his works for organ -- Litanies, in particular -- established him as one of the brightest stars among rising French composers in the decade before his battlefield death in 1940, at 29. A twin sense of loss and inheritance informed her studies and career.
With the allied liberation of Paris in August 1944, she entered the Paris Conservatoire, studying with Dupré for organ, Pié-Caussade for counterpoint and fugue, and Maurice Duruflé for harmony. Duruflé composed one of the finest of his small but masterly group of organ works as an hommage to Marie-Claire's brother, the Prélude et fugue sur le nom d'Alain, Op. 7 (1942). She studied with Duruflé from 1944 until 1950, schoolwork being augmented by private lessons. During her Conservatoire years, she carried off four Premier Prix. After the inauguration of her career in 1950, she took a prize for organ at the Geneva International Competition and gave her first public recital. The Amis de Orgue awarded her the Bach Prize in 1951. After a further two years of study with Gaston Litaize, she took up her career in earnest, giving well over 2000 recitals worldwide. Her recordings number in the hundreds, and she thrice recorded the complete organ works of Bach. By the 1980s, she had become known as a specialist in 17th and 18th century music, with numerous recordings of works by Couperin, Grigny, Daquin, Vivaldi, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Handel, C.P.E. Bach, Haydn, and Mozart -- among many others -- to her credit. But she also made distinguished recordings of Romantic repertoire with albums of works by Mendelssohn, César Franck, Liszt, Widor, Vierne, Poulenc, and Jehan Alain -- whose punctilious execution is suffused with passion -- carrying into the 21st century living traditions extending to the middle of the 19th. She was also much in demand as a teacher.
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Bach: Complete Organ Works (Analogue Version 1959-67, remastered 2018)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 24.08.2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Intégrale des seize concertos pour orgue et orchestre (Collection trésors, stéréo version)
Marie-Claire Alain, Orchestre de Chambre Jean-François-Paillard, Jean-François Paillard
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Lebègue & Marchand: Pièces pour orgue (À l'orgue de l'église Notre-Dame de Caudebec-en-Caux)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 17.02.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, JS : Complete Organ Works [1980]
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics International am 01.01.1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Marie-Claire Alain in Concert at Notre-Dame in Paris
Klassik - Erschienen bei Solstice am 01.02.2021
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Grandes Toccatas pour orgue
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics International am 25.03.1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Concerto pour orgue & Concert champêtre
James Conlon, Marie-Claire Alain, Ton Koopman, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 01.01.1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Orgelbüchlein, Preludes and Fugues & Fantasias (At the Organ of the Laurenskerk in Alkmaar)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 17.02.2023
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Franck: Grandes œuvres pour orgue (À l'orgue de l'église Saint-Étienne de Caen)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 09.04.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orgues du Jura franco-suisse, Vol. 2
Marie-Ange Leurent, Eric Lebrun, Olivier Camelin, Frederic Champion, Marie-Claire Alain
Klassik - Erschienen bei Phaia Music am 16.06.2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Messe du sacre des rois de France (Mono version)
R. P. Emile Martin, Jean Giraudeau, Marie-Claire Alain
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas Organ Music
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics International am 01.06.1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Organ Works
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics International am 01.01.1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Organ Concertos
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 04.10.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns: Symphonie No. 3 avec orgue, Le rouet d'Omphale & Danse macabre
Jean Martinon, Marie-Claire Alain, Orchestre National de France
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 01.01.1971
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alain: L'œuvre pour orgue, vol. 1. Litanies, Trois danses, Intermezzo (À l'orgue de la cathédrale Saint-Christophe de Belfort)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 19.06.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alain: L'oeuvre pour orgue (The Complete Organ Works)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Intrada am 16.05.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Œuvres pour orgue BWV 536, 538, 541 & 582 (Mono Version)
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Organ Masterpieces, Vol. 1
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics International am 01.06.1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Complete Organ Works (Analogue Version - 1959-67)
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 24.08.2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Une vie pour l'orgue
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 24.02.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo