Search - Poulenc, Durufle, Carteri :: Gloria & Organ Concerto

Where Poulenc is concerned, sentiment is their forte

05/01/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

""I don't play accurately, anyone can play accurately, but I play with wonderful expression." Algernon's line, at the very opening of Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest, is to this day one of the underlying tenets of French musical criticism, and as far as this recording's concerned, perhaps there's something in it.The organ of Saint Etienne du Mont seems, in the early sixties, to have been in need of a tune (some may remember, on an old recording of Saint-Saëns' 3rd, very likely also with Duruflé, its magnificently flat fortissimo entry in the final movement). The playing of the old ORTF is approximate, a tradition upheld to this day - on bad nights at least - by its successor, the National de France. Instrumental detail is obscured by plummy, resonant acoustics, and this is no digital recording.But Poulenc's unique "Our Lady goes to Coney Island" style is hard to get right, and these performances are more convincingly stylish than any other I have heard. On US or British organs - especially studio ones - with drier sound, the concerto itself can be dry, academic and unconvincing. More perfectly played and sung, the Gloria becomes a better-behaved, more reverent but more boring work.So although EMI are still, unaccountably, asking for full price for this disc (in CD format alone already 20 years old) you may well find it worth buying to hear Poulenc performed by people who knew him, in the town where he lived.Talking of organs that could do with a tune, whatever happened to Rosanna Carteri?"