Eugène Gigout
is a composer you are unlikely to have
come across unless you have been condemned
to be an organist. For those of us unlucky
enough to have been afflicted, Gigout
is the composer of precisely three pieces,
a Toccata, a Scherzo and a Grand Choeur
Dialogué, the latter much beloved
of British organists with loud Tuba
stops.
Today Gigout’s compositional
output in general is receiving more
attention, not least from the British
organist Gerard Brooks whose recordings
of Gigout’s music, (on French organs!),
have received much acclaim. More significantly
than his compositions though, Gigout
occupies a fascinating place as a pedagogue,
most notably as a link between two composers
you non-organists have heard of, both
of whom nonetheless were organists at
the fashionable church of La Madeleine.
Gigout was a student of Saint-Saëns,
and a teacher of Fauré.
Apart from his activities
as a composer and teacher, Gigout occupied
an organ bench not far from Madeleine,
at the imposing church of St Augustin,
for no fewer than 62 years. Fitting
then that the present-day incumbent
Didier Matry, should seek to honour
his illustrious predecessor with the
present recording.
The organ in St Augustin
is a large (3/53) Cavaillé-Coll
rebuild of an earlier organ by Charles
Barker; he of the Barker lever. Ironically
Barker built the organ using an early
form of electric action and the organ
didn’t receive Barker levers until Cavaillé-Coll
rebuilt it. While it is very difficult
to tell from the present uncomfortably
close recording, the Mixtures do seem
rather more prominent than is usual
with Cavaillé-Coll. Whether this
is due to changes made by Beuchet in
the 1960, (at least partially reversed),
or the over-riding character of Barker’s
original instrument is impossible to
determine from the recording alone.
I have to admit to
being disappointed in general with the
remainder of Gigout’s Dix Pièces
(from which the Toccata and Scherzo
come); most are too long, too repetitive,
and rather square. Perhaps the pieces
most commonly played are indeed the
most interesting; the sometimes-played
Rhapsodie sur des Noëls
is tawdry to say the least, one of those
improvisations that should have stayed
as such. On the other had I can’t help
feeling that Matry, a one time student
of Odile Pierre and his immediate predecessor
Suzanne Chaisemartin, could have made
more of the little-known material. His
playing is good, but no more; I longed
for more flexibility in the phrasing,
and more long line - Gigout writes slurs
of four or more bars everywhere in his
music. A Ben van Oosten figure might
have convinced me of the music’s merits.
The booklet is excellent
with interesting photos, organ history,
and an interesting essay on Gigout by
Didier Matry. Unfortunately the production
is let down by some amateurish editing,
for example at track 2 (4’29) and track
7 (1’13).
Chris Bragg
Didier Matry, organ 
