John Scott’s recordings
of Dupré’s organ music for Hyperion
are united here in their ‘twofer’ Dyad
reissue series, and a very welcome budget
release it is. I was introduced to works
such as the Trois Esquisses through
BBC Radio 3 broadcasts very many years
ago, so warm nostalgia plus a sense
of discovery for some of the other works
make me enthusiastic about these CDs,
and that’s before any comment on John
Scott’s playing or Hyperion’s recordings.
Dupré studied
with Alexandre Guilmant and Charles-Marie
Widor, whom he succeeded in 1934 as
Organist at Saint-Suplice in Paris.
With Widor setting the style and standard
of virtuoso concert organ writing with
his organ symphonies it is hardly surprising
that Dupré’s spectacular writing
sometimes owes more than a little to
his master, but the searching and troubled
nature of the first of the Esquisses
is very much in Dupré’s mature
voice. The second and third Esquisse
were originally published together,
the genuine No.1 being discovered only
in 1975. The second of this set of three
is an exercise in staccato repeated
notes, and the third a spectacularly
demanding octave study – tough and challenging
symphonic movements which advance the
language of the romantic organ and dumps
it firmly into the lap of the 20th
Century.
Both the Placare
Christe Servulis and Te lucis
ante terminum come from a set of
sixteen chorales based on plainsong,
a source to which Dupré would
return many times in his career. The
themes which appear in the Preludes
and Fugues Op.7 have something of
this character, and relatively simple
melodies bathed in a glowing, rolling,
but always transparent accompaniment
are a feature of his work. John Scott’s
playing in all of these works is well
nigh faultless to my mind, and the grand
old organ of St. Paul’s in its vast
acoustic responds as if made for the
music. The programme on CD 1 ends with
another old favourite, Variations
sur un vieux Noël which is
of course the old French carol ‘Noël
nouvelet’. The modal nature of this
theme suits Dupré’s layered language
perfectly, and the whole thing is a
sheer joy to hear in such a refined
setting.
The second CD, recorded
twelve year later than the first, offers
a different perspective on the same
instrument. The microphones have been
placed further away this time, so that
the hugely resonant acoustic of St.
Paul’s Cathedral plays an even greater
role. This is a more accurate impression
of the incredible effect the instrument
gives as one hears it from the public
arena, but Dupré’s often highly
detailed writing is harder to decipher
as a consequence.
The first of the works
on this second disc is the great Symphonie-Passion,
a four movement work based on an improvisation
the composer gave when giving a recital
in Philadelphia. The four movements
are ‘The World awaiting the Saviour’,
‘Nativity’, ‘Crucifixion’ and ‘Resurrection’,
and these grand themes are treated to
the full gamut of Dupré’s organistic
expertise, from the naivety of the approaching
wise men in the nativity, to the unrelenting
chromaticism of the crucifixion.
Cortège et
Litanie also exists in a version
for orchestra and organ, and was indeed
originally part of a five part set of
incidental music written for small orchestra.
The orchestral nature of a grand organ
suits the music perfectly, the heavy
tread of the cortège leading
up to a Russian flavoured ‘Litanie’.
The Deuxième
Symphonie combines the grand gestures,
chromaticism and staccatos of the Symphonie-Passion,
while at the same time looking forward
to works such as the Esquisses.
The middle Intermezzo movement
is initially sparing, quirkily developing
its sprightly theme into regions rich
and strange. The finale, an extended
Toccata, is craggy and by turns
unyieldingly fiery and creepily menacing.
Dupré’s Évocation Op.37
is a symphonic poem, the first of two
the composer wrote for solo organ. The
Allegro deciso is the third and
last movement of this work, and takes
the form of a fairly explosive and insistent
staccato on full organ. The unequivocal
C major conclusion of this movement
is a fitting end to the monumental content
of this CD.
Organ collectors will
know more or less what to expect at
St. Paul’s, and the Grand Organ has
rarely sounded so good on record – especially
in the first of these two CDs. Hyperion’s
‘dyad’ series doesn’t have any kind
of budget feel to it, and full details
of the instrument and substantial booklet
notes give full satisfaction in this
reissue. John Scott’s many years at
St. Paul’s mean that he knows the instrument
like few others, and his understanding
and deft touch in Dupré make
this collection a must-have.
Dominy Clements
John Scott (organ) 
for
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