Search - Reubke, Jean Guillou :: Organ Sonata

A Powerful Recording of the Organ Sonata

David A. Kemp | Plano, TX USA | 11/21/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a curious, offbeat recording, and as you can tell from the other reviews here, it's not to everyone's taste. However, I believe it deserves better than the short shrift the other reviewers have given it.



Julius Reubke (1834-1858) was an exceptionally promising pupil of Liszt at Weimar who died at the age of 24 and left only a handful of compositions, of which the two recorded here are the most substantial. You won't find him in the Penguin or Gramophone or even the more comprehensive Third Ear guides to recorded classical music. His organ sonata is well known to organists and organ buffs; it has been described as "one of the classic cornerstones of the high romantic virtuoso organ repertoire." (I came to know it on an old E. Power Biggs Columbia monaural LP back in the 1950s.) Conceived on a grand scale, as a musical depiction of Psalm 94, it is built upon a single theme, as is Liszt's great "Ad nos" fantasy and fugue which it somewhat resembles. Reubke gave its first performance on the organ of Merseburg Cathedral in 1857; it was to be the young man's last public appearance. The piano sonata, another full-scale, ambitious work, is much less familiar.



Jean Guillou is an unusual, one-of-a-kind, indeed controversial organist, a kind of Glenn Gould of the organ, if you will; some admire his performances and some do not. A Renaissance man of the organ, he's not just an organ virtuoso; he's also an accomplished improviser, composer, and transcriber, and having written a book on organ theory and design, something of an organ designer as well, whose ideas have borne fruit in some outstanding modern European organs (three of which you can hear on his various Dorian recordings). Like Gould he's a free (some might say wayward) spirit who has his own ideas about what he plays and interprets music "his way," which may not be the way you're used to hearing it. As one critic writes, "There is no denying that he is enormously talented and imaginative, but . . . he forcibly injects his personality into everything he plays." His recordings, which have won some prestigious European awards, have garnered responses that run the gamut from "among the greatest performances ever recorded" to "unbearably quirky and self-indulgent." He has also been called "the French Virgil Fox" (no compliment intended) and derided for his Fox-like "egotistical flamboyance." He is accurately described in the liner notes as "a completely distinctive musical personality [with a] highly personal approach to registration and rhythm." If this doesn't sound like your cup of tea, perhaps you might want to look elsewhere.



Having said the foregoing by way of qualification, however, and admitting my biases (I'm an organ buff and an audiophile), I find that Guillou's Dorian recordings offer compelling, creative, highly individual, often unique performances, on interesting and colorful instruments, in magnificent, state-of-the-art sound. I value them highly and wouldn't be without them (I have them all), while at the same time I wouldn't want them to be the only versions I own. At the opposite pole from the ur-text school of interpretation, he can be a refreshing antidote to cautious, literalist, by-the-book performances. At his best Guillou has a way of presenting a piece as spontaneously as if it's being freshly invented as he plays and we listen--as if he's improvising it on the spot--and of making a persuasive case for his interpretation.



He gives the Reubke organ sonata a performance that may be idiosyncratic but that I find powerful, impressive, communicative, and convincing on its own terms. He writes: "This enormous 'symphonic poem' for organ is a remarkable expression of the innocence, intransigence, and dynamic energy of youth." I'd say he conveys this spirit in his performance--and it's on a splendid organ, spectacularly well recorded. The instrument is the large Aeolian Skinner of Trinity Church, NYC, of ten divisions, 153 ranks, and nearly 9,000 pipes. It's well suited to this music. Nobody records pipe organs better than Dorian; this one sounds grand here (and has deep bass that will shake your floor and keep your subwoofer busy). I compared his performance to the other two I have on hand, and found it held its own quite well and had the best sound of the three.



The piano sonata performance is another story. The skills of harpsichordists, pianists, and organists, although all of them play keyboard instruments, are not interchangeable. Guillou is a virtuoso organist, but I don't believe he's a virtuoso pianist. He's an enthusiastic advocate of both Reubke sonatas, and even played the French and English premieres of the piano sonata. But based on what we hear here, it is a virtuoso vehicle whose pianistic demands seem to be beyond his means. Some passages are glossed over, smudged or smeared, and/or covered over with pedal: this isn't clean, clearly articulated playing that lets you hear all the notes; instead, there are too many untidy details that are swept under the rug. And the clarity of Dorian's fine sound makes the shortcomings all too apparent. I can't claim familiarity with this work, but while I think Guillou conveys its spirit, my ears agree with those who find this is an unsatisfying performance.



I recommend the CD, however, and find it well worth owning, for the thrilling, stunningly recorded, organ sonata alone, and I think most organ buffs and audiophiles would agree. Both performances were recorded in 1987; the CD runs 49:50 in length.

"

What was Guillou thinking?

Randall Harlow | Bloomington, IN | 12/04/1999

(2 out of 5 stars)

"In my ongoing search for recordings of Reubke's Piano Sonata I ran accross Jean Guillou's CD. His performance of the Piano Sonata seemed rather sloppy. Rhythms did not line up and difficult passages were glossed over. I could hardly follow along with the score as he had no rhythmic integrity. The Organ Sonata was marginally better. Fortunately it lacked the improvised Guillou-style cadenza he seems to feel necessary in certain performances (i.e. 1st movement, Widor 6). I can't recommend this CD for those interested in redeemble performances of Reubke's masterpieces."

Idiosyncratic rendering of the Reubke sonata

Robert Badger | Philadelphia, PA | 04/27/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Julius Reubke was one of the great what ifs? in music history. He died at a very young age. His thinking in both Sonatas (organ and piano) displays a tremendous amount of individuality. His work was praised by Liszt. Who knows what he might have become had he lived longer?However, his Sonata on the 94th Psalm has become a beloved part of the organ repertoire. It is one of the highest achievements, along with the works of Reger and possibly of Siegfried Karg-Elert, of German Romantic composition for the organ.Guillou, whose interpretations are always idiosyncratic thus attempts to take on the Sonata on the 94th Psalm. Guillou's credentials as a virtuoso are most certainly not in doubt. However, Guillou brings a unique interpretation to whatever piece of music he decides to interpret. His rhythms are very detached. His tempi vary wildly, and he strains rubato to the utter limits of one's endurance. His registrations are very unique. In some cases, they highlight certain aspects of a score that one did not know were there. However, I'm not certain that this piece of music is served by the interpretation of M. Guillou. It is an interesting recording, most certainly. However, I would look elsewhere if this were one's first glance at the Reubke sonata."