In celebration of master organist Jean Guillou’s 80th birthday Dorian Sono Luminus is proud to announce the re-issue and remastering of Guillou’s Bach Organ recordings for Dorian Recordings as a six CD box set and part of the “Best of Dorian” Series.
Jean Guillou is unique in our time. He is the last in a distinguished line of composer-organists, a virtuoso who creates, a Frescobaldi, a Sebastian Bach, a Liszt, a Widor. This rare blend of creator and interpreter imbues his traversal of Bach’s oeuvre for organ with a special vision, a unique spirit. Sebastian Bach, who owned a copy of Frescobaldi’s Fiori Musicali, approached the music of his great Roman predecessor as though it were contemporary, the creation of a peer, the handiwork of an esteemed colleague. To Bach, the keyboard works of Frescobaldi were as “new” as his own, as new as the Organ Masses of Couperin-le-Grand and de Grigny. To Guillou, the organ works of Bach are as “new” as those of Dupré, Messiaen, or Guillou. In these innovative, iconoclastic performances, virtuoso-composer meets virtuoso-composer, creator meets creator, and recreator meets recreator, all on an equal footing; together Bach and Guillou span the centuries like the Shakespearean colossus. Those who seek an “authentic,” “scholarly” approach to the Bach organ works “will,” to quote Sir Adrian Boult, “have no difficulty in finding many excellent recordings in this vein.”
Recorded on the The Kleuker-Steinmeyer Organ of the Tonhalle, Zürich and The Kleuker Organ of Église Notre Dame des Neiges, Alpe d’Huez, France this box set contains 5 discs that were volumes 1-5 of Bach’s organ works as recorded by Guillou as well as his transcription of the Goldberg Variations on disc 6. All of the albums have been newly remastered by the Dorian Sono Luminus staff and packaged in this handsome 6 CD Set. With eight additional discs available in the catalog, Guillou’s legacy as a master of his instrument is well represented and alive in the Dorian Sono Luminus Catalog.
