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Louis Vierne: Messe Solennelle, Opus 16. Daniel Roth, grand orgue; Eric Lebrun, orgue-de-choeur; Choeur Grégorien de Paris, Thibaut Martin, director; Choeur d'Oratorio de Paris, Jean Sourisse, director; Edward Schaefer, Hervé Lamy and Charles Barbier, soloists. Cavaillé-Coll organs at Saint-Sulpice, Paris. 2 CDs. JAV 179. Text in English, organ stoplists, Mass texts, and numerous illustrations included. $79.
THERE ARE AT LEAST TWELVE OTHER recordings of Vierne's Messe Solennelle, but none matches the exquisite beauty found on this new issue. This is no ordinary reading of the score. Louis Vierne (1870- 1937) completed the work in 1900, shortly after being appointed organiste titulaire at Notre-Dame Cathedral. A year later, the work was given its first performance at Saint-Sulpice, with Widor at the grand orgue and Vierne playing the orgue-de-chceur.
Sometimes thought composed for the organs at Notre-Dame, without question Vierne wrote his Messe with Saint-Sulpice in mind, confirmed by his registration indications; additionally, his model was Messe à Deux Choeurs et Deux Orgues, Op. 36, written by Charles-Marie Widor (1844- 1937) in 1878. Vierne was Widor 's assistant at Saint-Sulpice for eight years and knew Widor's work well. Completed when he was 30 years old, Vierne's ebullient setting is filled with the optimism of youth, and contains none of the dark chromaticism found in later works, particularly in the third and fourth symphonies.2
Vierne's setting of the Ordinary of the Mass-Kyrie, Gloria, Credo,3 Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus...