Dorian Recordings
DOR-90119
FOR
CHRISTMAS
JEAN GUILLOU, ORGAN
Recorded at the Great Kleuker-Steinmeyer organ
of the Tonhalle, Zürich
This recording - a collection of improvisations based on favorite Christmas melodies - is a special presentation in several respects. It was created to serve two very different but nonetheless complimentary aims. First was the wish to celebrate Christmas, the most joyous of festivals, with music of special drama and power. This purpose is readily understood: Christmas has always inspired people from the humblest and most simple to those gifted with the most prodigious talents, to express the sentiments of the season in music of profound beauty and eloquence. The second goal was to celebrate an important (but these days, too often neglected) musical art - that of improvisation. Improvisation is a mode of musical creation capable of generating works at the highest pitch of emotional intensity and expressive urgency; these attributes are integral both to improvisation per se and to the musical personality of the featured artist, Jean Guillou.
- Brian Levine
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[1] Toccata on Jingle Bells [2] Rondo on The First Noël [3] Scherzo on Wassail Song [4] Cavatina on Angels We Have Heard on High [5] Invention on Rejoice, Rejoice This Happy Morn Fantasy and Fugue [6] Lo, How a Rose [7] It Came Upon a Midnight Clear [8] Litanie on O Come, O Come Emmanuel [9] Capriccio on O Christmas Tree [10] Divertimento on Joy to the World [11] Variations on Of the Father's Love Begotten [12] Pastorale on The Holly and the Ivy [13] Postlude on God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen |
Dorian Recordings & Dorian Discovery
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