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GUILMANT C O M P L E T E O R G A N S O N ATA S
Adriano Falcioni
CD1 1 2 3
Sonata No.1 Op.42 in D minor I Introduction et Allegro II Pastorale (Andante quasi Allegretto) III Final (Allegro assai)
50’39 9’01 6’52 6’58
Sonata No.2 Op.50 in D major 4 I Allegro moderato 5 II Larghetto 6 III Allegro vivace
6’49 3’21 4’34
Sonata No.3 Op.56 in C minor 7 I Preludio (Allegro maestoso e con fuoco) 8 II Adagio 9 III Fuga (Allegro moderato)
4’30 4’23 3’23
CD2
72’24
Sonata No.4 Op.61 in D minor 1 I Allegro assai 2 II Andante 3 III Menuetto (Allegretto) 4 IV Final
4’42 4’26 4’37 5’02
5 6 7 8 9
5’46 8’35 6’27 1’35 9’04
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Sonata No.5 Op.80 in C minor I Allegro appassionato II Adagio (Adagio con molt’espressione) III Scherzo (Allegro) IV Recitativo V Choral et Fugue (Allegro)
10 11 12
Sonata No.6 Op.86 in B minor I Allegro con fuoco II Méditation (Andante quasi Adagio) III Fugue et adagio
CD3
7’27 5’25 8’17 62’16
1 2 3 4 5 6
Sonata No.7 Op.89 in F major I Entrée (Tempo di Marcia, maestoso) II Lento assai (Rêve) III Intermezzo (allegretto) IV Grand Choeur (Allegro con brio) V Cantabile (Andante) VI Final (Allegro)
6’05 4’00 5’49 3’01 6’15 5’29
7 8 9 10 11
Sonata No.8 Op.91 in A major I Introduction et Allegro risoluto II Adagio con affetto III Scherzo (Vivace) IV Andante sostenuto V Intermède et Allegro con brio
9’34 6’44 6’19 2’43 5’35
Adriano Falcioni organ
Recording: 25-28 October 2013 & 6-8 October 2014, Sacro Cuore Church, Cuneo, Italy Artistic direction: Maurizio Paciariello Publishers: Durand Cover image: P & © 2015 Brilliant Classics
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Guilmant’s Sonatas for Organ Félix Alexandre Guilmant was born into a family of organ builders and organists at Boulogne-sur-Mer on 12 March 1837. Appointed organist at La Trinité church in Paris in 1871, he succeeded Charles-Marie Widor as professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire, at the same time beginning a career as a virtuoso organist that took him on concert tours of Europe and America. His musical style and idiom clearly derived from classicism and from German Romanticism. The works of Bach and Handel were a source of inspiration, and the keyboard technique of Chopin and Liszt unquestionably influenced his oeuvre. Moreover, certain of Mendelssohn and Schumann’s Romantic works were seminal for a number of Guilmant’s shorter liturgical and secular pieces, including those in the cyclical sonata form, which also owed something to Beethoven, and specifically to Mendelssohn’s organ sonatas. Guilmant was the first musician to introduce the organ sonata as a genre to France, and although this was adapted to suit the Aristide Cavaillé-Coll symphonic organ, it still retained a form that recalls that of the chamber music tradition. Guilmant’s eight sonatas are works of considerable importance, to be ranked alongside Widor’s ten symphonies and the six composed by Vierne. They were written in a period in which organ music was undergoing notable development, thanks to the impact of Franck’s Grande Pièce Symphonique, and to the contributions of Lemmens (whose three sonatas were published the same year as Guilmant’s first work), Marty and Barié. But while Widor, in the Symphonie Gothique and Symphonie Romane, and Marty opted to write religious works, Guilmant was more inclined to compose for concert halls, tending towards the suite as a model, along the lines of his contemporary Léon Boëllmann. Apart from those of the third and seventh Sonatas, the first movements are structured in keeping with the classical sonata form. Next comes a movement using “undulating” stops (viole, unda maris, voce celeste…), possibly followed by a minuet 4
or a scherzo and concluded by the finale, occasionally preceded by some other introductory episode. With these works, the number of movements that made up the sonatas underwent significant development as the composer reached his maturity as a musician. While the first three sonatas comprise just three parts (vivo – lento – vivo), the later ones respectively either contain four, in keeping with the form typical of Viennese Classicism (vivo – lento – minuetto – vivo), or five (a Recitative leads into the Finale of the Fifth Sonata, an Andante Sostenuto precedes the last movement of the Eighth Sonata). On various accounts Sonatas V-VIII, composed between 1894 and 1906, speak for Guilmant’s intellectual creed. Despite the fact that his compositional technique was always clear and well suited to the instrument, the symphonic character of the work had begun to prevail within the cyclical sonata form. Although the succession of movements still mirrored those of the suite, they continued to grow in size, to the extent that in certain respects they began to resemble Bruckner and Mahler. Guilmant nevertheless adhered to his favourite forms: the sonata, works that are more Romantic in character, the scherzo and fugue, developing them to admirable heights of artistic achievement. His approach to melody revolved around the prevailing clarity of voice, which he never failed to incorporate into a modified harmony redolent of the models we associate with Franck and Wagner. © Adriano Falcioni Translation: Kate Singleton
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Description of the Organ built by Carlo Vegezzi-Bossi, 1897 Mechanical transmission console 4 manuals with 58 notes, the diatonic keys faced in bone and the chromatic keys in ebony. Pedal board with 32 parallel pedal keys Electrical registers, joints and couplers 54 electrically powered phonic register stops with knobs in walnut 35 electric action joint stops and couplers with knobs in walnut 8 electric action general cancel stops with knobs in walnut 3840 adjustable memory combinations with 60 levels of 64 memories (8x8) and sequencer
Electrical transmission nave console 4 manuals with 58 notes, the diatonic keys faced in bone and the chromatic keys in ebony 32 note concave radial pedal board 54 phonic register stops with pivot tabs in rosewood 35 joint and coupler stops with pivot tabs in rosewood 8 general cancel stops with pivot tabs in rosewood 3840 adjustable memory combinations with 60 levels of 64 memories (8x8) and sequencer Single cable transmission
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Pressure Manual I mm. 71 Manual II mm. 70 Manual III mm. 70 Manual IV mm. 90 Pedal mm. 73 Sound specification Choir LA 440 Hz at a temperature of 18° Equable temperament Organ Specification Manual I Great Principal 16’(1-13 facade) Principal 8’(1-20 facade) Flute 8’ Cuspide(1-20 facade) Dulcan 8’(1-12 facade) Octave 4’ Flute 4’ flue pipe Twelfth TenthFifth TenthSeventh Nineteenth Ripieno Grave 3 f 1’ Ripieno Acuto 2 f 1/2’ Trumpet 8’ 8
Manual II Positive Principal 8’(1-12 facade) Flute 8’ (wood) Unda Maris 8’ Flute 4’Harmonic Octave 4’ (1-20 facade) Nazard 2 2/3’ Flautino 2’ Third 1 3/5’ Mixture 4 f 2’ Clarinet 8’ Tremulant Manual III Swell Controgamba 16’ Eufonio 8’ Principal Dulcian 8’ Bourdon 8’ Viola Gamba 8’ Voce Flebile 8’ Concerto Viole 8’ Aeoline octave 4’ Fifteenth Pieno 4 f Bassoon 16’ Trumpet 8’ Arm. Oboe 8’ Tremulant
Manual IV Solo Trombone 16’ Trumpet 8’ Clarion 4 Arm. Chorus 8’ Cornet 5 f 8’ Gran Flauto 8’ Tremulant Pedal Acoustic 32’ Bassoon 16’ Subbasso 16’ Bass 8’ (1-12 facade) Bourdon 8’ Cello 8’ Octave 4’ Bombarde 16’ Trumpet 8’ Clarion 4’
For further details about organ builders Vegezzi-Bossi, please visit www.vegezzi-bossi.com
We would like to express our gratitude to Don Mariano Riba and Parrocchia del Sacro Cuore Di Gesù Enrico Vegezzi-Bossi and Bartolomeo Brondino Very special thanks go to my wife Mariangela for her love, patience, understanding and inspiration
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Adriano Falcioni Born in Terni, Italy, Adriano Falcioni is recognized worldwide for his technical ability and musicality. After studying with Wijnand Van de Pol at the Conservatoire of Perugia, he undertook further organ studies at the Freiburg Musikhochschule (Germany) with Klemens Schnorr, in London with Nicolas Kynaston and Paris with Marie Claire Alain. Adriano has participated in master classes in with great artists such as Gustav Leonhardt, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Ludger Lohmann, Jacques van Oortmerssen and Jean Guillou. He has been a finalist and prize-winner in many international organ competitions in Europe and USA. Adriano performs in concerts throughout Europe, including venues such as Westminster Cathedral, Leeds Cathedral, the Arp Schnitger organ in Norden and Hamburg, Fulda, Freiburg, Nurnberg, Berlin, Edinburg, Bruges, Amsterdam, Warsaw, and the Zurich Tohnalle as well as Russia, USA and South Africa. He teaches organ at the Conservatoire in Sassari, as well as holding many master classes in Europe and South Africa (at the Unisa University of Pretoria). With a wide repertoire that ranges from the Baroque to the contemporary, Adriano is particularly fond of the virtuoso music of the later 19th and all 20th centuries: Liszt, Reubke, Franck, Widor, Vierne, DuprĂŠ, DuruflĂŠ, Messiaen and especially of Reger. He is the principal organist of the Metropolitan St. Lawrence Cathedral in Perugia. www.adrianofalcioni.com 10
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