Marcel Dupré plays Cortege et Litanie at St Sulpice

Marcel Dupré plays his own Cortege et Litanie (Opus 19 No.2) in St Sulpice, Paris. This stereo recording from the Mercury label was made in 1959, the transfer from mint condition LPs (not master tapes) to CD was performed by those clever people at Haydn House.

See their website www.haydnhouse.com/organ_loft.htm for more information.

The organ as you can hear is a bit out of tune and Dupré himself makes the odd slip here and there, but he was 73! I find his playing just exquisite and of course the instrument is sublime.

As this is my first offering, all constructive criticism welcome :-) I will put up some more excerpts from the CD soon.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• St
• Sulpice
• Organ
• Marcel
• Dupre
• Cortege
• Litanie

[robmcw]

I wish Youtube would increase the audio quality. I can hear phasing from the compressed audio. Almost sounds like an 8 bit conversion.

[JFSnail]

@robmcw this was my first video and didn't understand which was the best conversion method. Now I would use HD and sound is much better, Youtube isn't always to blame :-).

[advisorC101]

This is absolutely gorgeous, Dupre was a pure genius.

[JFSnail]

This is my favourite interpretation of this piece, Dupré gets more emotion and power into this recording than any other. Plus its played on one of the most sublime pipe organs on earth.

[organmaster2101]

The picture at 2:09 is not the organ at st. Sulpice is it? They have a 5 manual and then pedal board is set up very differently with stop pedals and such with only the swell box expression on the right side correct?

[JFSnail]

The picture is a photograph of Dupré at his house organ in Meudon, it was built by Cavaillé-Coll for his father Albert Dupré and rebuilt many years later with four manuals.

[Heaventree1]

A really wonderful video. I was privileged to hear Dupre play in St. Sulpice in 1968. At 82, his playing was as masterful as ever. We got to spoke to Dupre afterward, and it's one of the fondest memories of my life. Such a warm, courtly person, like a figure from the Belle Epoque dropped down into the modern world. A great man, in every possible way.

Thanks for posting, JF.

[Justedd]

this is probably the best version on youtube, no surprise its a recording of the man himself.

[contrebombarde1895]

Those string stops are very loud for strings, it nice to hear dupre play this at st sulpice :)

[organum74]

Yes, the best interpretation, that is right.

And so nice hearing the Master himself, on "his" organ.

The last crescendo is fantastic, incredible !

And a wonderful recording too !

[peteacher52]

What a wonderful sound! Dupre and the great Cavaille-Coll - what more need be said?!

[VicodinAddicted]

thanx for your dupre vids, he's one of my favorite composers

[JButterworth16]

@JFSnail Sorry to resurrect an old post, but is there any chance you could re-upload it at a better conversion rate? No need to worry if not! :)

[christianvs1]

Ah....the dignity of the stately Cortege! A most perfect tempo; the Litany was beautiful! When the two were brought together, it was nothing short of an Introit, an 'introit-wihtout-words'. This is the original gift of the Church Organist - to bring together the formal liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church and his gift for music, giving birth to prayer in beautiful sounds rising like incense unto heaven.

[md95065]

@JFSnail Dupré's house organ was originally built for Guilmant in 1900 - it was acquired by Dupre in 1925 and later was extensively modified - the picture here shows the original console

[redletterchurch]

I would love to hear a choral version of this! I'd love to see most classical organ music converted into choral music! 'Cortege and Litanie' would be an excellent beginning to a very long and difficult process. Can someone please do this? I would, if I could. But I can't, so I won't!