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Première: French Organ Music - Sakari

Première: French Organ Music - Sakari

Fuga  FUGA-9297

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Instrumental


Jehan Alain: Litanies, Maurice Duruflé: Scherzo Op. 2, Joseph-Guy Ropartz: Introduction et Allegro Moderato, César Franck: Choral III, Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op. 18, Léon Boëllmann: Suite Gothique Op. 25, Louis Vierne: Finale from Symphonie No. 1

Pétur Sakari (organ)

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A true 5.0-multichannel recording, editing and mastering: Mika Koivusalo.
SACD mastering: DER/Esa Santonen
Reviews (1)
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Review by John Miller - June 15, 2010

The Première in question is not, of course, that of the music itself, but the recording début of Finnish organist Pétur Sakari - at the age of seventeen. His interest in the organ was piqued at the tender age of three. At eight he took up organ studies, first with Pekka Suikkanen and later Tuomas Karjalainen. He also started cello lessons at the Helsinki Conservatory. When thirteen, in 2005, Sakara gave his first organ concert, and he was invited to give a further concert at the Turku Organ Festival the following year. In 2009 he was awarded the title of "Young Artist of the Year" at the Lahti International Organ Festival. He will give a concert at the Pori Organ Festival in 2010. The splendid Paschen organ of the Central Pori Church in western Finland (2007) is based on the French Romantic organ style and thus ideal for the present recording of Pétur Sakari's ambitious French programme.

Sakari's own very articulate notes tell us about his discovery of, and entrancement with, the music of Vierne, Duruflé, Boëlmann, Franck and Jehan Alain from an early age. He has chosen some great edifices of organ music from the repertoire which developed under the influence of the great organ-builder and composer Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, intelligently designing a satisfying programme without too many war-horses. His selection displays the technical flair and brilliance so far acquired, as well as allowing him to explore the quieter, mystical and contemplative aspects of the late Romantic style (and some of its later developments). Listeners need not relax their critical faculties on account of Sakari's age at the time of this recording. Clearly he has a musical maturity well beyond his years; interpretational originality is married with undoubted technical skill. Pétur has resisted merely copying interpretations of the current masters, having things of his own to say about the music. Also an important tool in the organist's armoury, an obviously acute and discerning ear for textures and colours allows him to draw some wonderful sounds from the Pori organ, so as to present the chosen music in its best light, especially where there are no guiding notes on registrations from the composer.

It is a brave organist indeed who begins a concert with Jehan Alain's fearfully difficult 'Litanies' (1937). Whilst on holiday in the Alps, his sister Odile (then only 23) was killed in a climbing accident. Alain had recently completed 'Litanies' but rewrote much of it, repeatedly hurling a short prayer heavenwards at God. This piece makes its greatest impact when played as if improvised. From the first near-manic repetitions of the prayer motif, jabbing pedal rhythms and massive disruptions of full organ power to the final towers of blazing mixtures and reeds, Sakari manages Litanies with a fine sense of controlled chaos.

Duruflé's Op. 2 Scherzo offers some quieter strains. Its chordal progressions on tremulant stops, interspersed with will-o'-the-wisp note-flurries across the registers, catch the composer's dry sense of humour in an often delicate, Ondine-like interpretation. Joseph-Guy Ropartz's 'Introduction et Allegro moderato' (1917) is well-shaped, its imposing Bachian splendour interspersed with more mystically meditative sections.

César Franck's 'Choral III' was his last organ piece, a glowing ember which Sakari fans unerringly into tonal incandescence, arriving authoritatively at a long-held final major chord resolution. Franck's 'Prélude, Fugue et Variation', Op.18, is given a limpid start, with sweetly demure Baroque flute and oboe sounds. The Fugue has gravitas and discipline, and a final Variation once more features quiet dialogues of oboe and flute stops over slowly changing pedal notes, the epitome of French charm and sensibilité.

Boëlmann's four movement 'Suite Gothique', Op.25 offers a delightfully galumphing 'Menuet Gothique', bouncing around with jolly gusto, followed by a perfumed sentimental 'Prayer to Our Lady', given by a soft reed chorus with subdued pedal support. Its final 'Toccata' is well-known; fizzing figurations flicker above a somewhat gloomily purposeful march theme on the pedal division. Sakari's feet are as well-controlled and fluent as his hands, even with the tricky double-pedalled octaves. To complete the disc, Sakari launches Vierne's 'Finale' from his First Organ Symphony, also very familiar, and a cousin of the ubiquitous Widor Toccata. Fireworks indeed ensue, as Sakari seems not to notice the the piece's fiendish technical difficulties. Vierne and Sakari thus conclude the concert on a note of radiant joyful exuberance, showing off the full splendour of the Pori organ in a blaze of hedonistic celebration.

Sakari is lucky to have one of the best engineers of organ recordings, Mika Koivusalo, at the technical end of his Première. In this realistic capture, as if from a good seat in the body of the church, we can hear all the building's responses, loud and soft, to its organ. There is a stable perspective which allows us to discern the different relative positions of the organ's divisions. Lovers of 32' pedal stops will be glad to hear the plentiful clean and transparent LF content, especially on the 5.0 multichannel track, and there is a formidable dynamic range so that the neighbours can enjoy the disc too. Koivusalo also supplies the organ specifications and attractively informative photographs of the organ in its home at Central Pori Church.

This disc gives us a unique snapshot of an ebullient, deeply musical and enthusiastic young artist at the beginning of what we must hope will be a long career. It will be fascinating to hear how he revisits these favourite pieces in the years to come. He will have much to learn but on this evidence is off to an excellent start at entertaining his public. Highly commended to lovers of French Romantic organ music and its high quality realistic reproduction.

Copyright © 2010 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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