Saturday, April 17, 2010

An Eastertide Treat

This is a stunning rendition of the Te Deum Laudamus from Notre Dame, Paris. Famous organist Pierre Cochereau (1924 - 1984) improvises after each line of chant sung by the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame-de-Paris led by Cantor Jehan Revert.

André Fleury, who was one of Cochereau's first organ teachers, said of him later in life
"As one day we were en tête à tête, I asked him if he worked on improvisation. 'Never,' he replied. 'What I do at Notre-Dame and in concert serves as practice.' Such gifts, when one thinks of his harmonic language, so subtly refined, and what force of concentration to give a form to all those riches!" In regard to Cochereau's formidable improvisational skills, the great Marcel Dupré , also one of Cochereau's teachers, said of his former student, "Pierre Cochereau is a phenomenon without equal in the history of the contemporary organ."

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