Categories:
Cart 0

Your cart is empty

Michel Chapuis

This organ player from Jura wasn't just a globally-respected performer of Bach and Buxtehude, but like so many of his fellow organists, he was a passionate student of organology and a very knowledgeable musicologist. Born in Dôle in 1930, it was naturally the experience of listening to the organ of the Collégiale on the day of his first communion that brought him face-to-face with his vocation. Over the course of his life, Michel Chapuis would hold many prestigious positions as organist, including at Notre-Dame de Paris, or, more recently at the Chapelle Royale in the Château de Versailles, but he would always remain attached to the organ in his hometown. In 1955 the young organ player would become the official organist; he became preoccupied with the restoration of the organ, aiming to return it to its original style. Created in the mid-18th Century, the instrument had suffered the ravages of the years and repeated restorations. Daring decisions, not always easy to take, helped return to the venerable instrument its original lustre. Michel Chapuis played it all his life, but, wise scholar that he was, he waited almost his whole career before recording anything on "his" organ, because, he said, he had not yet unlocked all of its mysteries. He would privately admit that this triple album was, so to speak, his "musical testament". Triple like the Trinity, triple like the three faces of this splendid instrument: German (Buxtehude), French (Boyvin) and Romantic (Mendelssohn, Guilmant).


Alongside his knowledge of all things organological (study of the instruments and their history), Michel Chapuis threw himself into a deep study of the performance of French organ music of the 17th and 18th Centuries: ornamentation, uneven notes, registration (in a manner of speaking, "orchestration" for organists), as well as the crucial matter of temperament (tuning the instrument) and the diapason, which at the time often varied from town to town. It was thanks to his painstaking work in libraries and to his scrupulous examinations of manuscripts that a whole musical literature which had been sunk in obscurity could now see the light of day. Michel Chapuis is a leader of a glorious band of pioneers who have made it possible to renew the interpretation and rediscovery of this whole musical literature.


His discography, recorded on meticulously-selected instruments, is extremely vast and authoritative. His recordings, which run to almost 150, have become points of reference for music lovers and organists alike. Among the numerous available versions of Johann Sebastian Bach's complete organ works, the one by Michel Chapuis is always cited as being one of the best, thanks to his inimitable art, with its strength, richness and articulation and by his feel for registrations, tempo and breath. The sound quality hasn't aged a day. His entire Buxtehude is also one of the high points of Michel Chapuis's discography, which is an excellent illustration linking the two great German composers. This giant of the organ has also left us a lot of French music: Couperin, Grigny, Titelouze, Dandrieu, Clérambault, Daquin and Balbastre.


Michel Chapuis remains, for many young organ players today, THE uncontested master who could pull off stupefying improvisations in all styles, as François Couperin once was: capable of improvising a prelude in the style of Buxtehude, an incredible fugue like Bach or a romantic Toccata à la Widor. He was also a genuinely nice man who was really able to listen to his students and younger colleagues.


© François Hudry/QOBUZ/November 2017
Listen

Discography

50 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

1 2 3
1 2 3

My favorites

This item has been successfully <span>added / removed</span> from your favorites.

Sort and filter releases