Jean Langlais
Jean Langlais wrote organ and sacred choral music of rich, complex harmony and overlapping modes, shot through with an earthy Celtic folkiness that sits beside Franck, Tournemire and the mid-century French school.
He held the organ loft at Sainte-Clotilde in Paris for more than four decades, in the line of César Franck and Charles Tournemire. His catalogue runs to hundreds of works: four-part masses such as the Messe solennelle and Missa Salve Regina, the spare Missa in simplicitate for unison voice and organ, and a long shelf of organ pieces from the meditative Chant de Paix to the ringing Bells. The writing is eclectic and personal, sometimes closer to tonality than Messiaen, sometimes brushing serial technique, often grounded in Breton colour. Chant de Paix and Bells ask for stillness, colour and bite, music that speaks as clearly on a small chapel organ as on a bright neo-Baroque concert instrument.
Jean Langlais is featured on the following titles
A Recital of organ music from St. Paul's Cathedral Melbourne
The works on this recording span some eighty years of organ writing. Three come from the latter half of the nineteenth century; the remaining three were written in the first half of the twentieth.
Compositions by Jean Langlais also appear on
Perth Concert Hall: Ronald Sharp organ
Jangoo Chapkhana plays the Ronald Sharp organ at Perth Concert Hall. The programme spans Buxtehude, Sweelinck, Bach, Balbastre, Langlais, Messiaen and Eben, and closes with Chapkhana’s own Variations on Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.
The Remarkable Norman Kaye
Move Records has gathered material for this CD paying tribute to the wonderful Norman Kaye. The main focus is the musician and organist, without forgetting his acting career.
Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields
Fifteen historic organs from the Ballarat region are heard on this disc, released to mark the 2005 Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields festival. A fully illustrated 16-page booklet surveys the builders, churches, instruments, music and performers.
Great Hall Grandeur
Amy Johansen plays the Rudolf von Beckerath organ in the Great Hall at the University of Sydney. Great Hall Grandeur presents one of Australia’s most beautiful and versatile pipe organs – among Beckerath’s last masterpieces – in the hands of one of the country’s finest concert organists.