Listen & tracks

1 of 10 tracks have a preview · 10 works · 67:01

1 Variations de Concert, Op. 1 Joseph Bonnet 9:23
2 Canzoncina a Maria Vergine Marco Enrico Bossi 4:17
3 Pièce Héroïque César Franck 9:28
4 Il Natale in Sicilia (Christmas in Sicily) Pietro Alessandro Yon 5:29
5 Prelude and Fugue in G minor Johannes Brahms 8:06
6 Chorale Prelude, Op. 122 Johannes Brahms 4:29
7 Noël Jean-François Dandrieu 6:36
8 Le Banquet Céleste Olivier Messiaen 7:19
9 Noël Claude-Bénigne Balbastre 6:33
10 Litanies Jehan Alain 5:21

The organ at St Mary's Star-of-the-Sea Church was built between 1898 and 1900 by the leading colonial organ builder George Fincham at his factory in the Melbourne suburbs. It was the first pipe organ in Australia to be classified by the National Trust and is regarded as an instrument of national importance. It remains the largest organ built in Australia during the nineteenth century to survive essentially intact.

Sergio de Pieri plays a concert of Italian and French favourites that draws on the full resources of the restored instrument, from Franck's epic Pièce Héroïque and Bonnet's virtuoso Variations de Concert to Messiaen's Le Banquet Céleste and Alain's Litanies.

Reviews

magnificent sound ... all of this, and the soaring music, demonstrate the organ's range and versatility, and the virtuosity of the performer.

— Lynn Wells, Radio News 3BBB-FM

it's stirring, reflective, rousing, thoughtful ... Turn your volume up and listen to those bass pedals.

— Kim Lockwood, Herald Sun

an interesting program of delights

— Bruce Steele, Organo Pleno

quite beautiful to listen to ... Sergio de Pieri's playing ... is musical, sensitive and accurate ... breath-taking.

— Lindsay Hutchinson, The Melbourne Anglican

The recital makes immensely enjoyable listening.

— John Maidment, 3MBS FM Libretto

Artists

Sergio de Pieri

organ

Born in Treviso, Italy, well-known organist Sergio de Pieri emigrated to Australia in the 1960s and was chiefly responsible for reviving local interest in the organ and its true repertoire. He was organist at the Basilica of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, Chief Study Organ Lecturer at the University of Melbourne and still regularly performs throughout Australia, Europe, USA and Canada.

Jehan Alain

composer

Jehan Ariste Alain (1911 – 1940) was a French organist and composer. Alain was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the western suburbs of Paris, into a family of musicians. His father, Albert Alain (1880–1971) was an enthusiastic organist, composer and organ-builder who had studied with Alexandre Guilmant and Louis Vierne.

Claude-Bénigne Balbastre

composer

Claude Balbastre wrote flamboyant French harpsichord character pieces and Noëls that thrived in Parisian salons and on the organ: portrait pieces full of colour, dance rhythm and courtly swagger, still vivid when the keys rattle and the stops open.

Joseph Bonnet

composer

Joseph Bonnet is the composer of the virtuoso organ work Variations de Concert, Op. 1. The piece appears among French organ favourites recorded on the George Fincham grand organ at St Mary’s Star-of-the-Sea, West Melbourne.

Marco Enrico Bossi

composer

Marco Enrico Bossi (1861–1925) was an Italian organist, composer, improviser and teacher, best known for his organ music and for the lasting standards he set for organ study in Italy.

Johannes Brahms

composer

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. His music for piano, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and voice remains central to the concert repertoire.

César Franck

composer

César Franck’s music carries the weight and colour of the Romantic organ loft into symphony, chamber music and song. The Violin Sonata, Symphony in D minor, organ Chorales and Pièce héroïque, and the serene Panis angelicus remain central to the repertoire he shaped.

Olivier Messiaen

composer

Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) was a French composer, organist and ornithologist whose colour-rich, rhythmically intricate music stands among the major achievements of the twentieth century.

Jean-François Dandrieu

composer

Jean-François Dandrieu was a French Baroque composer, harpsichordist and organist. Dandrieu's harpsichord oeuvre is, after those of François Couperin and Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy, the most important in terms of sheer quantity of pieces.