Gargouilles et Chimères from the fourth suite of the 24 Pièces de Fantaisie (Op. 55, No. 5) by Louis Vierne performed by Ben Bloor on the 45 stop 1954 Downes/Walker organ of the London Oratory Church on Friday 9th October 2020.
Louis Vierne had a very difficult life. Blind from an early age, he lost his brother and son to the First World War, his wife left him for a close personal friend, and he was frequently overlooked for high-profile teaching jobs at the Paris Conservatoire. Nevertheless, he was Organist Titulaire of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris for the last 37 years of his life – indeed, he tragically died of a heart attack at the organ console during his 1750th recital – and his organ compositions are an enduring legacy, adored by audiences and organists for their inventiveness and originality. The 24 Pièces de Fantaisie were composed while on summer holiday in 1926 and 1927 and showcase Vierne at his most creative.
Like the third suite, the fourth was composed while Vierne was on a summer holiday in Luchon in July and Aug 1927, although nothing is known of its premiere. Gargouilles et Chimères is one of Vierne's most creative and vivid scherzos. Classically, a chimère is a ‘fire-breathing she-monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail’. Presumably depicting the grotesques (gargouilles) on the walls of Notre Dame, the music never really settles, but uneasily jerks from eerily calm to madly energetic. While the abrasive sound of the cromhorne remains the same throughout, each subsequent quiet response changes instrumentation just subtly enough to make the onlooker wonder if the stone faces have altered their appearance or not...
Ben Bloor is Organist at the London Oratory Church and School Organist at Westminster School. For more information, please visit [ Ссылка ]
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