Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
Organ Music: Volume 2
Giorgio Benati, Fausto Caporali, Alessandro Perin (organ)
rec. 2023, organs in Milan, Province of Verona and Padua, Italy
Brilliant Classics 96361 [5 CDs: 364]

I unfortunately missed Volume 1, which appeared last year, of Brilliant Classics’ survey of the organ music of Jean Langlais. Released a year later in July 2024 comes Volume 2, similarly a five CD set. The label’s mammoth project aims at more than 20 CDs in total, under the supervision of organist Giorgio Benati, himself a pupil of Langlais. Benati is one of several organists performing the composer’s works on different instruments located throughout Italy. Each organ chosen is suited to the specific style and requirements of Langlais’ music.

Langlais contracted glaucoma when he was only two years old, which rendered him blind. His initial organ tuition was with André Marchal, who was also blind. He eventually began studies at the Paris Conservatoire studying composition with Marcel Dupré and Paul Dukas, and improvisation with Charles Tournemire. He became a renowned improviser, and wrote prolifically for the instrument. His compositional output is large by any standards, but has been criticized for being uneven. He was a man of profound religious convictions, and his music is almost exclusively sacred, inspired both by Catholic liturgy and Gregorian chant.

Here are a few highlights that especially stuck with me in the set. The four-movement First Symphony is monumental and exalted. Highly inventive, it demands a great deal of virtuosity from the performer. One can detect outrage in its pages, said to be the composer’s reaction to the Nazi occupation of Paris. The Third Symphony, which opens the collection, is cast in five movements. Complex and thrilling it’s the perfect curtain raiser. The opening is an impressive and biting declamation of strength and power. The finale, titled “Orage”, is a fine tumult of virtuoso playing, brilliantly dispatched by Fausto Caporali. These two symphonies are the most substantial works in the set.

Alessandro Perin offers a buoyant and idiomatic rendering of the Fantasy on Two Old Scottish Themes. The composer wrote this in 1986, basing it on two traditional Scottish airs – “Island Spinning Song” and “Lewis Bridal Song”. The Poem of Happiness (1966) is a brilliant toccata which showcases the magnificence of the Tamburini-Bonato Organ at the Duomo of Saint Lawrence at Abano Terme, Padua. Perin’s kaleidoscopic spectrum of registrations invests this showstopper with breathtaking fire and gusto.

Incantation (1949) is based on two themes from the Easter Vigil of Holy Saturday. It opens with a dramatic statement of repeated notes. The harmonies become complex and interwoven and the work, only six minutes in length, ends in resplendence. Giorgio Benati performs  on the splendid organ of the  Abbey of Santo Stefano, Isola della Scala, in the Province of Verona.

On the same instrument, the Trois Méditations Sur La Sainte Trinité were composed in 1962. No. 1 Première Personne – Le Père is serene, introspective and meditative. Here, the Gregorian Pater Noster is tightly woven into the score. In No. 2 Deuxième Personne – Le Fils Benati opts for luminous sonorities which depict light. Langlais ratches things up in No. 3 Troisième Personne – Le Saint Esprit, where there’s more movement and drama.

This 5 CD volume has been a joint collaboration between three Italian organists: Giorgio Benati, Fausto Caporali and Alessandro Perin. The three organs chosen are: the Ruffati Organ (2000) in the parish church of San Vittore, Milan; The Tamburini-Bonato Organ (1967, 1999) at the Duomo of Saint Lawrence at Abano Terme, Padua and the Diego Bonato Organ (2007) at the Abbey of Santo Stefano, Isola della Scala, Province of Verona. They are three magnificent instruments whose registrations are listed in the booklet. They offer the composer’s music “an  ‘Italian accent‘ while faithfully observing his expressive and registration markings in his scores”. The sound quality throughout is consistently superb. The acoustics of all three venues are sympathetic to this music and accommodate wide dynamic ranges in addition to revealing spatial effects and musical detail. The booklet notes are clear and well-written, and discuss the works performed. They come courtesy of Giorgio Benati.

The price of this set is something of a steal, and is certainly worth every penny of the outlay.

Stephen Greenbank

Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free.

Contents
CD 1
1. Introducion
2. Cantabile
3. Intermezzo
4. Un dimanche matin à New York
5. Orage
6. Paraphrase de la messe “Stelliferi conditor orbis”
7. Paraphrase de la messe “Magnae Deus potentiae”
8. Nr. 1 Le Paradis
9. Nr. 2 Disons le Chapelet
10. Nr. 3 Angélus
11. Nr. 4 Noël Breton
12. Nr. 5 Jésus, mon Sauveur béni
13. Nr. 6 Jésus nous dit de prier
14. Nr. 7 Aux lys avec leurs feuilles argentées
15. Nr. 8 Pensez à l’éternité
16. Chant des bergers
17. Prière des mages

CD 2
1. 1. Prélude
2. 2. Tiento
3. 3. Improvisation
4. 4. Méditation
5. 5. Acclamations
6. Nr. 1 Chromatique
7. Nr. 2 Contrepoint 1
8. Nr. 3 Alternances
9. Nr. 4 Contrepoint 2
10. Nr. 6 Staccato
11. Nr. 7 Trilles
12. Nr. 8 Alleluia
13. Poem of Happiness
14. 1. Melody
15. 2. Trio
16. 3. Final

CD 3
1. Stèle pour Gabriel Fauré
2. Sur le tombe de Buffalo Bill
3. Double Fantaisie pour deux organistes
4. Boys town, lieu de paix
5. Nr. 1 (ohne Satzbezeichnung)
6. Nr. 2 (ohne Satzbezeichnung)
7. Nr. 3 (ohne Satzbezeichnung)
8. Nr. 1 Première Personne – Le Père
9. Nr. 2 Deuxième Personne – Le Fils
10. Nr. 3 Troisième Personne – Le Saint Esprit
11. Dominica In Palmis
12. Incantation (Pour Un Jour Saint)

CD 4
1. 1. Allegro
2. 2. Églogue
3. 3. Choral
4. 4. Final
5. Ante Introitum
6. Post Offertorium
7. Post Communionem
8. Post Benedictionem
9. Ante Introitum
10. Post Offertorium
11. Post Communionem
12. Post Benedictionem
13. Nr. 1 Brève 1
14. Nr. 2 Brève 2
15. Nr. 1 Libre
16. Nr. 2 Récitatif
17. Nr. 3 Allegro


CD 5
1. Fête
2. 1. Rosa mystica
3. 2. In Paradisum
4. 3. Alléluia
5. Fantasy On Two Old Scottish Themes
6. 1. Fugue on “O filii”
7. 2. Légende de Saint Nicolas
8. 3. Cantique
9. 4. Canzona
10. 5. Rhapsodie sur deux Noëls
11. Miniature 2
12. Nr. 1 Pastorale-Prélude
13. Nr. 2 Interlude
14. Nr. 3 Bells