Pierre COCHEREAU joue BACH (extrait)

[chamade216]

I hope one day The Cochereau-Boisseau organ will be restored!

[musichiere70]

Semplicemente eccezionale, fantastico... Ridateci l'Organo di Notre Dame, ridateci l'Organo di St Sernin... please please please....

[oneginee2]

had to listen 6 times. incredible.

[oneginee2]

After three listenings I am still marveled! What a beautifully textured sound this organ was capable of and played by Cochereau. This must be transcendant and memorable to listen in person. What a sound and harmonies in this composition by Bach.

[marcdub2004]

DAMNED !!!! I want the cochereau-Boisseau-Hermann Organ BACK !!!!!!! This ROCKS! Miss him...

[Modernmanx]

To compare the maestro and immortal Pierre Coucherau with Virgil Fox is like comparing the finest cuisine restaurant that got 10 stars in guide rouge with a cheap fast food/hamburger restaurant!

[marsvltor2]

Hearing the end of this work made me weep: why, oh why, were the Boisseau reeds butchered? The organ is still fine, but pre-restoration it was the best roller-coaster ride one's ears could ever experience :-)

[ds1868]

Totally agree marsvltor2. The Boisseau chamades can easily be restored to their former glory. The two mixture stops on the Recit also need to be restored as well - strangely the blank draw stops remain for them on the console just in case! Let's hope that one day the revisions will be reversed, and the Organ of NDdeP recovers its position in the Top Three in the world (along with St Ouen and St Sulpice).

[2video]

As a youth Bach is said to have played the 60+ stop Reinken organ (for Reinken) while visiting Hamburg and that organ had a 32' pedal reed. Bach probably could imagine his compositions performed on organs larger than those available to him at his country churches. He is also said to have advised Silbermann about early fortepiano designs and suggested improvements. But without electricity the large 60+ stop organs require more people to pump bellows, limiting the building of large instruments?

[advisorC101]

Yes, I remember a quote where someone said ''What is the point of building instruments with four manuals? '' since the weight of the coupling would be to much for an organist to handle. Yet another reason why they didn't construct so many large instruments.

[2video]

When Bach was in Leipzig he is said to have preferred to play a three manual 53 stop organ for his public recitals. This was not the organ at his Thomaskirche but at another church wuth greater tonal resources and said to be the largest organ in Leipzig. To me it looks like Bach was exploring the best organ technology and performance practices available to him for musical expression. He doesn't appear to be frozen on one type of organ size or design, but looking into future potential?

[sweelinck99]

Mais oui Viva Cochereau. Lui è molto bravo, lo strumento è molto bello e poi BACH ci mette tutto il resto. Le ance da 32' sono un poco troppo sovrastanti, ma forse è la registrazione vecchia ed il mio computer non è il miglior riproduttore dei suoni. Pierre sei forte ovunque tu sia in questo momento (spero in paradiso). bye robert

[pordzio]

This recording is similar to Virgil Fox's recording. I dont know if Pierre played similar to Fox, or Fox played similar to Pierre :)

[cliveso]

You offend many Cochereau fans by comparing with Fox. Please just don't. They are not of the same class.

[ds1868]

Yes, you cannot compare Virgil Fox with the Master. Just in the same way that you cannot substantiate the illusory qualities of Americana compared to the originality and genius of European civilisation. We came first, we are first, and we will always be first.

[kmdpiano25]

Pull the broom stick out of your ass, get down off your pedestal, and learn how to spell. While obviously Pierre Cochereau is truly a master over Virgil Fox, there is no need to trash Americans in the name of some ill-perceived "European Superiority" complex.  Great musical legacies have come from both continents, and there is no denying that.

[ds1868]

I fail to see any musical legacy of any kind from America. And the term 'Americana' is actually used here in an ironic way re 'Pax Americana'. Of course, the insinuation may have been far too subtle for you, in just the same way that your inappropriate language is far from subtle. Indeed, your vacuous contribution proves the point made even further. You have nothing to contribute to this thread kmdpiano25, please go away.

[Theodopolis]

ds1868, as a fellow European, I must ask that, leaving aside your ever-so-slightly-Fascist 'Europe First' slogan, you cast your thoughts to the work of Samuel Barber and Charles Ives, the organs of Ernest Skinner, and or course, that musical mountain of which Cochereau was a fierce advocate - Jazz, and still tell me of the absence of any musical legacy for across the Atlantic.

kmdpiano, your contributions are quite valid and continue to be welcome on this thread.

Please do not go away.

[kdh652]

I agree... how can you tell the difference when they play on these huge machines where the instrument and acoustics decide all. The real test is making the pipework of a small 20-rank tracker sing, something I never heard either of these do. But E Power Biggs could, with great subtlety. :-) So could Chapuis, Chapelet, etc., on and on.

[tuxedomoon]

Actually the way of perfomance of bach himself in the only report about his actuall playing had a lot of legato manner in a way different to the the staccato manner of some ofhis contemporaries,so we should think that this comes directly from buxtehude and the stylus fantasticus

[ds1868]

Yes, but the point redletterchurch is making is: would Bach have used all the resources of the later Baroque/Romantic Organs that we are blessed with today? I think the answer is an unequivocal 'yes'. He would have loved the dynamic colours and power of these Organs - and he would have loved Cochereau's organ here at NDdP.

[bachprofessore]

Bach loved the gravity of organ pedals, so he would love Cavaille-Coll's Pedals, too

[redletterchurch]

I love hearing Bach played in a French Cathedral with a French romantic interpretation! What might Bach have written and played if he were at Notre Dame rather than St. Thomas?! He might have used legato, the swell-pedal, and trompettes enchamade! I heard Cochereau at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. His improvization was awesome!

[ds1868]

Yes, another stunning performance by Cochereau. Somehow he really brings 'Bach' alive - I am sure 'The Master' would have travelled by foot to hear Cochereau play!

[ContreBombarde]

Now THIS is how Bach should be played! His articulation is fantastic as always and his registrations as well! None of that tinkly, pretty stuff with a burping 16' Basson in the pedale here... A clear recording of this (which I have heard) shows even more that Cochereau had guts and dared to play Bach with guts, fire, and energy. Vive la Cochereau!

[widor78]

COCHEREAU jouant Bach à l'orgue de Notre-Dame de Paris, c'est une pure merveille! Cet Artiste nous manque beaucoup!