Prières pour Notre Dame: Music for organ and upper voices by Dupré, Boulanger, Demessieux, Poulenc Dir George Richford Regent
There can’t be many car manufacturers who have added notably to the Catholic liturgy – or indeed any liturgy. But there is Claude Johnson, who described himself as the hyphen in Rolls-Royce. By 1910, Johnson was running the company after the death of the two founders. And he was the dedicatee of Marcel Dupré’s 15 versets pour les vêpres du commun des fêtes de la Sainte Vierge. This was initially in alternatim form: the treble line of chant alternated with Dupré himself improvising on the vast organ of Notre-Dame de Paris for the feast of the Assumption on August 15, 1919.
It might well be that gratitude for the end of the First World War energises this work. Whatever the case, Johnson paid for Dupré to transcribe what he had played originally. And the result has, most recently, been recorded on the organ of St-Ouen, Rouen, perhaps the most celebrated of all the achievements of organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, with an English team, including the senior girls of Romsey Abbey.
It would probably be hard to record anything bad with the St-Ouen instrument, though clearly, as the liner notes tell us, the instrument – unchanged since Widor inaugurated it in 1890–needs a lot of nursing to keep it going. It still sounds magnificent. If the most important stop on an organ is marked “The Acoustic”, then St-Ouen is remarkably advantaged. And Colin Walsh – who has devoted his career primarily to the performance of French Romantic and French 20th-century music – recreates these liturgical improvisations with authority. The recording is like a rumble strip in the road: slow down and pay attention.
George Richford brings the senior girls from Romsey Abbey – one of Britain’s most impressive ancient churches, whose pre-Reformation choir was composed of nuns – to sing the Vespers, as well as, among other pieces, Poulenc’s devastating Litanies à la Vierge noire.
There are some remarkable girls’ choirs now across the UK – Sarah MacDonald’s at Ely Cathedral, Helen Smee’s at Christ Church, Oxford, Anna Lapwood’s at Pembroke College, Cambridge, to name but three. The sound of this Romsey choir, across the range, is impressively good. It is mature, finessed and – in the Poulenc – in a kind of compelling sacred combat, or perhaps danse d’amour, with the power of Cavaillé-Coll’s masterpiece. There is something peculiarly affecting in this, as if somehow the light has been turned on.
There are some organ solos – two movements from Jeanne Demessieux’s 12 Choral Preludes on Gregorian Chants. Demessieux (1921-1968) was, as it happens, a pupil of Dupré. The two exquisite pieces here – on the Rorate caeli and Attende domine – are perfect counterparts to the voiced devotional intensity of the other pieces.
A delight.
Francis O’Gorman was organ scholar of his college in Oxford and remains an active musician. He is Saintsbury Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh and tweets at @francis_ogorman
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.