Lemmens. "Fanfare". Cavaillé-Coll Organ of St. Ouen. Gerard Brooks.

[Jimbowinch]

Beautiful piece of music expertly played.

So majestic.

This piece of music would go down well as HM the Queen and the Royal Family arrive/ leave the Diamond Jubilee Service at St Paul's Cathedral, London in June.

[b3boneman]

Wonderful acoustics, wonderful organ, wonderful organist, and wonderful,wonderful Fanfare!

[omahas9000]

DAMN it, this is gorgeous!!!

[Contrafactum]

Great performance with an excellent recording. What happens at 1:14 and 2:54? It sounds like a 3/4 measure there. The pedal must be reduced at those points and the frantic lunge at the gt/pd stud is the typical solution.

[1JeanDeaux]

Thank you.

[gmc0422]

Perfect! You can hear every nuance of this wonderful Fanfare. Mr Brooks' articulation and tempo are superb and very well suited to the space into which this number is played.

Bravo! I concur fully with all of the "best recording/performance" postings.

[orgelfanfare]

the best recording of the Lemmens Fanfare on YouTube

[MrBooker39]

Great performance on a great organ! I agree that Mr. Brooks' tempi and registrations suit the space perfectly. Tremendous rhythmic drive and articulation.

Thanks.

[peteacher52]

@lllmozartlll I find it difficult to comprehend that relatively wealthy France can't find the funds to have an iconic organ like this restored. There must be political considerations we are unaware of. My point is this; compared to France, New Zealand is not especially wealthy, yet money was found, from various sources, to have a full rebuild by Klais, of the Auckland Town Hall organ, at around $NZ3.5M. The result is brilliantly successful. (It's on YouTube) So why not France?!

[lllmozartlll]

@peteacher52 ...The Cavaillé-Coll at St. Ouen is regularly maintained by the renowned organ builder Denis Lacorre and his team. The organ's sound quality is absolutely wonderful, as recent concerts and recordings prove beyond any doubt. There is no need for a comprehensive restoration, which would inevitably lead to undesirable changes of this irreplaceable historic and authentic instrument. The city of Rouen, owner of the organ, provides the funding for the maintenance works.

[rauschmixtur95]

wundervoll



[gerardbedecarter]

From one Gerard to another: a beautiful performance and sound!

[kempedkemp]

Thanks for sharing this. SUPERB! Will be looking for more Brooks.

[pauldquam1]

What a grand sounding recording! Done so well in such a huge room! Especially

when listening thru quality earphones, you are right where the microphones

were during the session. Keep up the fine work and Thank You

[kontrahylian]

I Love this Piece its a piece that makes me glad to be a francophille it also brings tears of joy to my eyes

Vive La France!

et

Vive L'orgue

[dmph3]

Nice articulation...and French reeds are superb, whether in solo voices or in choruses. (note all the reeds in the swell box!) @chen: bish plays in a dead acoustic (compared to this!) which requires fast tempi. The slow-speaking resonance of a wet room, on the other hand, requires the performer to slow down as the room is part of the dialog. Which brings us back to the reeds of a French instrument, which allows crisp articulation in an acoustic that can turn this kind of material to mush.

[32ContreBombarde]

How can anyone dislike this? Jealous? 

[goodchappy]

I like this because despite the long reverb and the speed at which it is being played, you can still hear all the notes so it just sounds great.

[zsebi66]

I do agree ... probably the best fanfare on youtube. 

[marsvltor2]

Re Richard's comment re Bish—I thought we were talking about music! What's she got to do with it lol ;-)

[marsvltor2]

And he taught Franck???!!!

[Silverdaddy101]

I always thought this was , kind of a silly piece. I played it once and the audience loved it!.  Told them it was something I picked up at a garage sale.

Sounds good here.

[543693The]

bel élan et solennel ! grande clarté des sons de cet orgue !! impressionnant !!!

merci Raphael et compliments !

Marie

[john1801rambo]

excellent performance!

[23ericgarner]

this probaly the best recording of this piece on youtube.

[wurlic300]

I guess I better practice more! Wow! Nice.

[MrBooker39]

The rhythmic drive of this performance is superb! Equally impressive is the clarity...especially in this setting. Great playing, great recording!

[32pedalnotes]

I agree. This is the best recording of the Lemmens Fanfare on You Tube. Great style, interpretation, registration,articulation, and musicality. Bravo!

[casavantlover]

Is there something wrong with The Masterpiece? It doesn't sound quite the way it used too, and in fact I can hear "wheezing" at the end. Don't get me wrong, it sounds great, but I can't help but wonder if it doesn't need a teardown and general restoration.

[EccentricRichard]

@casavantlover - yep, overdue for restoration. It's never really been restored! I saw a video where it looked like many of the ivory cappings to the natural keys on the manuals had come unglued and fallen off too. Thing is, St Ouen was deconsecrated (can anyone tell us if this was in the Revolution, or the secularist revolution of c.1905?) and really only exists as a shrine to its organ. Sad, I think it ought to be given back to the Benedictines... it's state property and there's no money

[geschiedschrijver]

interieur magnifique !!

[peteacher52]

I'm lost for words! How superbly played to the acoustics of the building. Gerard's playing of the majestic Cavaille-Coll brought to mind the slightly staccato style of Prof Ian Tracey at Liverpool Cathedral which suits the cavernous reverb to perfection. Well done Gerard and well done recording engineers. Thank you lllmozartlll for this fine posting.

[29luthien]

wunderschöner klang, eine der welt besten orgeln. was würd ich nur dafür geben dort mal spielen zu dürfen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[deei2]

just amazing

[Tigsounds]

The title says the organist is Gerard Brooks

[john1801rambo]

who is the organist?

[gerardbedecarter]

Very nice.

[vleermuisje2]

Ook Lemmens was diep gelovig.

Vandaar deze Fanfare ter ere van GOD.

[chen0466]

So far, this is the best recording of the Lemmens 'Fanfare' I've viewed on YouTube. Much superior to Diane Bish who although is a brilliant technician is too much about speed. The tempo here is excellent, musically well done, good registration and interpretation, accurate and lots of clarity.

[ds1868]

@chen0466 Completely agree. All of the recordings posted on youtube of Gerard Brooks on this instrument are absolutely the tops - just brilliant playing, registration, sympathy of the acoustic of the building, and a truly excellent quality of recording by the sound technicians. You are simply not going to get any better on this, the finest organ in the world.

[chen0466]

@ds1868 I have to confess, that even though I liked this, I would also like to hear Ben Van Oosten do this. I'm guessing he may have already recorded it. When it comes to recording the literature of the principals from the French Romantic period, Ben Van Oosten is my favorite. I wish I could find an artist who makes the same level of quality recordings for Baroque music. I'm sure there must be some out there, just haven't been able to track them down yet.

[EccentricRichard]

@chen0466 - Diane Bish, brilliant technician? She's rubbish! So many things I've heard her play where she's cut out the most difficult bits, glossed over them. She has no artistry, little musicality, no sensitivity... plus, both in terms of her personality and her appearance, she's totally brash and unsubtle. Her dress sense is crap too. Mind you, at least, unlike Cameron Carpenter, she doesn't prefer toasters and doesn't turn up to give a recital in church dressed like Freddie Mercury...

[chen0466]

@EccentricRichard 90% of what you described has nothing to do with technical ability, but is related rather to personality and artistic ability and on that 90 % I completely agree. Regardless, she shows a lot of technical skill. That said, technical ability - although there is merit to it - does not make a piece, by itself, sound great.

[organmad]

@chen0466

I am sorry to say, but this is supposed to sound great and when I hear this work I expect to see the Queen walking down the aisle. This recording has no WOW effect compared to Dianne Bish's recording. The tempo is not at all correct, it should be faster. However the playing is very neat.

[chen0466]

@organmad Hello, sorry, but playing something to demonstrate speed and technical ability creates no 'Wow' factor for me. For me it does the opposite and takes something away from a performance. But that is what makes you and me uniquely separate..

[dunlapds2]

@chen0466 I know I could just click the "thumbs-up" on your comment, but I MUST write a response to say I couldn't agree with you more! ... about Diane (whom I know!) ... about tempo ... about registration ... interpretation. EVERYTHING is spot-on!

[2468HOTROD]

@chen0466 I think Diane Bish has a tendency to play everything she plays way too fast.

[FromHolbergsTime]

Sublime art, voices as if from Heaven

tonal clusters which speak in noble voice

the evocation of time, art and majesty

**********

Glenn

[cezig]

Raphael ! tu me l'avais cachée cette video ! magnifique !......

[543693The]

Toujours heureuse de retrouver les orges de St OUEN !!!

Merci beaucoup

Marie K.