Jeanne Demessieux - The Decca Legacy (Vol. 6: Jeanne Demessieux - The Franck Recordings at La Madeleine, Paris)

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Jeanne Demessieux was the first internationally recognised virtuoso organist before Marie-Claire Alain. She was organist of the Madeleine Church in Paris from 1962 until her premature death in 1968. Under exclusive contract to Decca, she made several solo recordings on various instruments and also with an orchestra, including some Handel Organ Concertos with Ernest Ansermet, on the organ in Victoria Hall in Geneva.

At the age of thirteen, Jeanne Demessieux became the favourite student of the great Marcel Dupré, who considered her to be "his true successor". She worked with him for more than twelve years, winning prizes for excellence at the Conservatoire de Paris and performing concerts with triumphant success in Europe and North America. During her funeral, which was attended by a large crowd, the Madeleine organ remained silent and draped in black as a tribute. 

In 1959 Jeanne Demessieux was asked by Decca to record César Franck’s complete organ works. A project made even more difficult by the poor conservation state of the Madeleine organ, which was only restored after these recordings had been made over three years. Most of the takes were done in full and uncut, with two helpers on either side of the console to change the registrations of the unpredictable instrument with as little noise as possible. The result on this splendid Cavaillé-Coll of 1846, magnificently captured by the English sound engineers, is quite simply splendid and still constitutes a benchmark today, thanks to its perfect harmony with César Franck’s world of sound: Demessieux remains one of its best performers and leaves her most memorable evidence with these recordings. © François Hudry/Qobuz