Elder After Hours - Bach and French Romanticism

Eva Schad  organ

JS Bach  Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 552
JS Bach  Trio Sonata No. 4 in G major
JS Bach  Concerto in A minor (after Vivaldi), BWV 593
Léon Boëllmann  Suite Gothique
Louis Vierne  selected works
Jehan Alain  Deuxième fantaisie
Marcel Dupré  Prelude and Fugue in G minor, Op. 7 No. 3

Bach was distinctly more famous as an organist than a composer during his lifetime. At age eighteen he went to Arnstadt to take up the position of organist at St Boniface from where he made his 200-mile trek to hear Buxtehude play. France’s great organ tradition dates back to Titelouze in the early 1600s, progressing from polyphony to the ornamented style for which Couperin was renowned. César Frank later inspired a new generation of stars, teaching Vierne (Notre Dame’s almost blind organist for 37 years)  and inspiring Boëllmann. The hugely virtuosic Dupré studied under both Widor and Vierne then in turn taught Jehan who was playing professionally at St Germain-en-Laye by the age of eleven.