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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C. P. E. Bach: Concerto pour orgue, Wq. 35 - Soler: Quintette pour orgue et cordes No. 6 (Mono Version)
Marie-Claire Alain, Jean-François Paillard, Ensemble instrumental Jean-Marie-Leclair
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vierne: 4 Symphonies pour orgue (À l'orgue de l'abbatiale Saint-Étienne de Caen)
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Couperin : Messe pour les paroisses & Messe pour les couvents
Classical - Released by Warner Classics International on 1 Jun 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Noëls français pour orgue (Aux grandes orgues de la cathédrale d'Auch) (Mono Version)
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Concerto, BWV 1052 & 3 Sinfonias de cantates (Mono Version)
Marie-Claire Alain, Kammerorchester des Saarländischen Rundfunks, Karl Ristenpart
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Marie-Claire Alain (E. F. Walcker-Orgel, Schramberg, Schwarzwald)
Classical - Released by Ifo classics on 20 Jan 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Concertos pour orgue Nos. 1 - 4 (Mono Version)
Marie-Claire Alain, Saar Chamber Orchestra, Karl Ristenpart
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: L'art de la fugue, BWV 1080, extraits (Mono Version)
Paul Kuentz Chamber Orchestra, Marie-Claire Alain
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: L'œuvre pour orgue, vol. 7 (à l'orgue Frobenius de Middelfart) (Stereo Version)
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Concertos pour orgue, vol. 1 (Mono Version)
Marie-Claire Alain, Jean-François Paillard
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Préludes et fugues pour orgue (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chants religieux célèbres (Mono Version)
Camille Maurane, Marie-Claire Alain
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Three Organ Concertos (Mono Version)
Paul Kuentz Chamber Orchestra, Marie-Claire Alain, Françoise Baudlot
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Buxtehude: Pièces pour orgue (Aux grandes orgues de l'église Saint-Merri de Paris) (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Widor, Gigout & Boëllmann: Toccatas (Aux grandes orgues de l'église Sainte-Clotilde de Paris) (Mono Version)
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Œuvres modernes pour orgue (Aux grandes orgues de Sainte-Clotilde et Saint-Merry de Paris) (Mono Version)
Marie-Claire Alain, Jean Langlais
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
de Grigny: Hymnes pour orgue, aux grandes orgues Clicquot-Gonzalez de Saint-Merry de Paris (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Albert Alain par Marie-Claire Alain aux orgues de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Albert Alain)
Classical - Released by Phaia Music on 1 Apr 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vieux Noëls (Mono Version)
Marie-Claire Alain, Schola des Pères du Saint-Esprit du Grand Scolasticat de Chevilly, Lucien Deiss
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Noëls français pour orgue (Aux grandes orgues de la cathédrale d'Auch) (Stereo Version)
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Prélude et fugue, BWV 550 & Canzone, BWV 588 (Aux grandes orgues Clicquot-Gonzales de l'église Saint-Merri de Paris) (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo