Pierre Cochereau Improvises in St Thomas NYC Part 1

Pierre Cochereau improvising in a concert given in St Thomas church NYC, November 9th 1970. The concert was recorded for posterity onto 1/2" tape and the sound quality has deteriorated over the years, but its the performance that matters. For his programme Cochereau chose entirely French repertoire, starting off with a stirring performance of selected movements from Couperin's Messe á l'usage des Paroisses on the glorious Gilbert Adams 90 rank French Classical organ at the time situated in the gallery. Then onto the chancel organ for Vierne's Claire de Lune and Impromptu and Dupré's Allegro Deciso from Suite Evocation, the latter piece played with significantly less venom than on his Notre Dame recording. The CD is still available to buy on Amazon.com or to download from iTunes, Amazon link here http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Sain...

The improvisation is on the tune Rouen Church Melody or Iste Confessor, the tune used in the hymn O Laughing Light. I have separated it into 4 parts, the Theme and Prelude, Adagio, Choral and variations and Final Variation. The theme is played by St Thomas organist William Self on the gallery organ before the choral and each variation and joins the chancel organ for the heroic finale. The structure will be familiar to Cochereau fans, his arch-form Prelude, gentle Adagio, then choral and contrasting variations showcasing the mutations, vox humana, flutes and ensembles, not forgetting the Trompette-en-chamade, as we know, he loved his chamades! :-)

The Gilbert Adams gallery organ was sold off and removed and now replaced with a fine Taylor and Boody instrument, I don't know exactly why it was not thought suitable, which is a shame as it sounds quite glorious. The chancel organ has a chequred history, EM Skinner first built an organ in 1913, rebuilt it in 1945, but the organist wasn't satisfied with it and had MP Moller make alterations in 1948. Skinner was shocked and begged to be allowed to rebuild it himself much more cheaply, he was very bitter at seeing his organs rebuilt by others. Aeolian-Skinner then rebuilt it in 1956, G. Donald Harrison's final masterpiece, he died before it was finished. William Self asked Gilbert Adams to rebuild it in 1969, a very controversial move for those who loved Harrison's work, this is the instrument you hear on the recording. It was revised in the 1980s by Mann and Trupiano and most controversially of all, about to replaced entirely by a new organ sometime in the future, when funds allow!