Louis Vierne is renowned as one of the most brilliant of all French organ composers. His piano works are little known despite their colourful, imaginative and inspiring treatment of the instrument. The early Deux Pièces owe their lyrical style to Mendelssohn, while the Suite bourguignonne exudes an atmosphere of joie de vivre and romantic contentment. Impressionism can be heard in the Trois Nocturnes, the third of which is considered one of Vierne’s masterpieces with its evocative use of birdsong, while the shadows of war echo in the solemn Poème des cloches funèbres. This is the first of two albums covering repertoire that deserves a place in the pantheon of French piano music.

REViEW:

The overall impact of Volume 1 is wide-ranging. The musical style stretches from the Romantic character piece to post-Impressionism. The compositions on this album are placed in chronological order.

The playing by Sergio Monteiro captures the magic of this music. He can seize Vierne’s “colourful, imaginative and inspiring” approach to the piano. The recording is superb. The liner notes by Peter Siepmann are excellent; they give a brief overview of the composer’s life and achievement, detailed notes about each piece, and successfully manages to fit them into Vierne’s overall achievement. Bearing in mind that there are few other sources of information about this music, they make essential reading.

I enjoyed this exploration of Louis Vierne’s piano oeuvre. To whom will this disc appeal? I guess that listeners who appreciate the great tradition of French piano music, from Alkan to Messiaen. It fills a gap that has been ignored by most recitalists and I look forward to the second volume soon.

– MusicWeb International

Louis Vierne inhabits a unique place in the development of the Organ Symphony. Following in the footsteps of his teacher, Charles-Marie Widor, Vierne brought the organ symphony to its pinnacle with his six symphonies, written between 1895 and 1930. Symphonic in style, structure, and form rather than forces, these solo organ works are exquisite composition examples of the last great late French Romantic organ composer. As the thirty-one movements of these symphonies offer a staggering variety of character, from majestic to whimsical, and from deep despair to unbridled joy; the venues offer an equally broad variety of organs and acoustics.

Concert Organist Eric Plutz performs the Complete Organ Symphonies of Louis Vierne superbly and spectacularly on six separate organs around the United States from New York to Texas. This album is the culmination of “The Vierne Project,” a series of performances of the complete Vierne organ symphonies in celebration of the composer’s 150th birthday in 2020. The University Organist at Princeton University, Plutz is one of only a handful of organists to embark on such a venture. As an organ concert soloist, he has performed on distinguished and historic instruments across the United States and abroad including in Germany, Austria, and France.

Louis Vierne will always be best remembered as one France’s most outstanding organ composers, but his piano works are part of a significant wider oeuvre and notable for their colourful and inspired inventiveness. Each of the Douze Préludes carries an evocative title in music filled with the pain and tumult of war and loss, while the epitaphs in Solitude were composed shortly after the deaths of Vierne’s brother and eldest son. Including recently published manuscripts, this is the second of two albums covering repertoire that deserves a place in the pantheon of French piano music.