GUILMANT Grand Chorus in g, op. 84. Caprice, op. 20/1. Allegretto in b, op. 19/1. Lamentation in d, op. 45/1. Offertoire O filii, op. 49/2. Sonata No. 7 in F: Rêve. March on a Theme by Handel, op. 55/2. Scherzo symphonique in C, op. 55/2. Noël languedocien, op. 60. Sonata No. 1 in d: Finale • Robert Delcamp (org) • NAXOS 8.557614 (70:24)

Belgian trained Felix-Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911) was an indispensable link in the continuation of the French Romantic organ tradition founded by Franck. He was a stalwart advocate and popularizer of the organ as a legitimate concert instrument apart from its churchly service, and became an international superstar whose tours took him as far afield as the United States. He was also the bridge between Widor, who preceded him as professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory, and Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, Nadia Boulanger, and Marcel Dupré, all of whom can be counted among his many students. He also distinguished himself as a musicologist, editor, publisher, and champion of 17th- and 18th-century organ works, and, along the way found time to establish, with Charles Bordes and Vincent d’Indy, the Schola Cantorum in Paris.

After his death, his students, most notably Dupré, strove to keep his musical legacy before the public. In the wake of World War II, however, he faded into obscurity, not because his music was in any way deficient, but because a new Zeitgeist was afoot in the world. Many had reasoned that both World Wars I and II were inextricably tied to the Romantic tradition. Hitler was, after all, a stalwart Wagnerian. Musical esthetics and language had to change if we were to avoid the horrific results of the past. In light of Schoenberg’s atonal experiments and Messiaen’s expansion of musical language into uncharted realms that would ultimately lead to Pierre Boulez, Guilmant’s music seemed hopelessly archaic and, to use a word bandied about during the tumultuous years of the 1960s, “irrelevant.”

More’s the pity. His music is finely crafted, masterfully exploiting the Cavaillé-Coll organs that were developing, synergistically, along with him. The year 1984, however, saw a turnaround as far as Guilmant’s reputation is concerned. A reprint of the greater part of his works appeared in the United States. European publishers quickly followed suit, and he is once again before the public.

This collection offers a good mix of his religious and secular music (he was a pretty evenly bifurcated composer in those two realms). As performed by Robert Delcamp on the Casavant organ op. 2654 1961/2004 of the All Saints Chapel at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennesee, I found the liturgical pieces the most arresting. The Lamentation in D Minor, the Offertoire O filii, and the Nöel languedocien are characterized by an ecstatically hushed religiosity quite unlike anything found in either Widor or Vierne. Guilmant was an admirer of Debussy, and Impressionistically pastel coloring (brought to the fore by Delcamp’s apt registration choices) heightens the exquisite affect of these pieces. Delcamp’s other virtues lie in his unerringly effective tempos, clear articulation, fine sense of dynamic shading, and his ability to project the feeling lurking beneath the notes. He also has a fine sense of musical rhetoric and drama, as shown in his performance of the Lamentation.

The collection ends with the Finale of Guilmant’s Sonata No. 1 in D Minor—an elaborate sonata-allegro movement with a swirling toccata-like first subject and a hymn-like second subject. The young and brilliant Felix Hell on Reference RR-101CD (where all three movements are performed) takes it at a considerably quicker tempo (7:25 as opposed to Delcamp’s 8:56). Delcamp, on the other hand, gives far more space for the hymn to breathe, and more firmly underscores the piece’s rhetorical flourishes. Were they conductors, Hell would be Toscanini and Delcamp would be Walter.

The sound is excellent by current standards, and organ specs are provided.

FANFARE: William Zagorski