Debussy & Ravel on the Organ

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The Stahlhuth/Jann organ of the Eglise Saint-Martin de Dudelange, Luxembourg, is a powerful symphonic instrument supplying all the orchestral colours you could wish for...but the harp...percussion... — Gramophone Magazine, November 2014 More…

Release Date: 30th Jun 2014
Catalogue No: BIS2049
Label: BIS
Length: 73 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Debussy: La Mer

Work length37:43

Album only

Gunnar Idenstam

I. De l'aube a midi sur la mer (Arr. G. Idenstam)

Track length15:28

Album only

II. Jeux de vagues (Arr. G. Idenstam)

Track length5:44

$1.00

$1.50

III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer (Arr. G. Idenstam)

Track length16:31

Album only

Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2

Work length9:46

$1.50

$2.30

Gunnar Idenstam

I. Lever du jour (Arr. G. Idenstam)

Track length9:46

$1.50

$2.30

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

Work length16:05

$3.00

$4.60

Gunnar Idenstam

II. Assez lent (Arr. G. Idenstam)

Track length7:32

$1.50

$2.30

III. Modéré (Arr. G. Idenstam)

Track length8:33

$1.50

$2.30

Ravel: La valse (Arr. G. Idenstam)

Work length5:57

$1.00

$1.50

Gunnar Idenstam

Ravel: Pavane pour une infante defunte (Arr. G. Idenstam)

Work length2:23

$1.00

$1.50

Gunnar Idenstam

Ravel: Boléro (Arr. G. Idenstam)

Work length1:48

$1.00

$1.50

Gunnar Idenstam

About
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About

A musician of uncommon versatility, Gunnar Idenstam happily acknowledges the influences of Swedish folk music and dance as well as the symphonic rock of the 1970s. But whether he collaborates with Sami traditional singers (as on Songs for Jukkasjärvi, BIS-1868) or folk musicians (as on Folkjul - A Swedish Folk Christmas, BIS-5031), Idenstam is firmly grounded in the virtuosic French organ tradition which he studied in France, with the legendary Marie-Claire Alain. It was during his time in Paris that he first started dreaming of transferring Debussy’s La Mer to his own instrument – to perform this impressionistic orchestral seascape on the organ. As Idenstam now releases a recording of his arrangement, it appears in the company of key orchestral works by Maurice Ravel, another composer who never wrote anything for the organ. In his liner notes to the disc, Idenstam writes of arriving, over the years, at his own palette of organ sounds, one which he feels best corresponds to those of the orchestra. Finding a suitable organ on which to realize the arrangements has also been vital for this project, and as a result, Idenstam travelled to the small town of Dudelange in Luxemburg. With its more than 5.000 pipes, the four-manual Stahlhuth-Jann organ of Église Saint-Martin has an exceptionally broad dynamic spectrum, as well as a wealth of characteristic stops with which to bring out the timbres of Debussy’s sea and wind, and depict the daybreak of Ravel’s Lever du jour, the glittering ballroom chandeliers of La Valse or the ecstatic climax of Boléro.

Reviews

November 2014

The Stahlhuth/Jann organ of the Eglise Saint-Martin de Dudelange, Luxembourg, is a powerful symphonic instrument supplying all the orchestral colours you could wish for...but the harp...percussion and string pizzicato are such important elements of Debussy's palette that the organ simply cannot reproduce their role to comparable effect....a programme of rich ambition and imagination.

Debussy & Ravel on the Organ

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