Marcel Dupré plays Carillon at St Sulpice

[@octavegeigen4]

INTERPRETATION?! This is the great Marcel Dupre playing his own work. It can't get any better than this.

[@DavidSmith-nk5rd]

As an organist myself, who was taught by someone who studied under Marcel Dupre, I have to say I love this piece. This is pure majesty. I can understand why listening to a recording on KZbin makes it appear as "noise", but if you ever hear this piece in real life on an organ similar to the one at St. Sulpice, it will blow you away....literally.

[@Highinsight7]

Two of my teachers studied with Dupre... THIS is a GREAT piece... !

[@JFSnail]

Yes, stunning photographs, heaven knows how they took them, especially the ones out on the roof!

[@thetenor1000]

Utterly thrilling. The odd 'slip' at the start (might be the instrument rather than the player?) is totally inconsequential when the level of musicianship is this high. The 'communication' of the music (as opposed to just playing the notes) is stunning. This is genius at work. Wish I could have heard him play (this preferably) in a vast space. Could listen to this all day.....Huge thanks for posting.

[@JSC1401]

If you'd heard him play as I did in 1970, you may not have wanted to! Improvising still OK (an automatism for him) but Bach totally unclear and lots of fluff in the French stuff. A great organist, however.

[@thetenor1000]

JSC1401 - yes; and a very great composer! I agree; probably wouldn't have wanted to hear him in the Baroque repertoire - but the French romantic; that's another matter.

[@melbapatti]

JSC1401 Give him a break. By 1970, his hands were totally gnarled and crippled with rheumatoid arthritis. It's a miracle he could still play at all.

[@jb9652]

@@JSC1401 Improvisation "an automatism". Yes, I think you're right. Interesting. I play a large percentage of the organ repertoire, yet improvisation is definitely not an automatism for me. Makes me feel like an imposter! I can however be inspired by Dupré 🙂. I have some ideas...

[@jsc5492]

@@jb9652 Looking back on it, what I probably meant is that - he had schematised improvisation (in order to teach it) as he published in his two-volume "Method". - He improvised a lot and could fit any theme into his way of improvising.

[@kristendelaney5196]

I have always loved this piece and came across it for the first time on KZbin tonight. I imprinted on the Michael Murray version some years ago, and hearing this, played by the composer himself, opened my ears to this piece in a new way... I can hear the percussion of the 'bells' much more precisely and I have much more of that 'carillon' feel. While the Murray version was technically quite good, hearing the composer riff on his own piece and what he brought to the performance, especially when he colored 'outside the lines' [that is, outside the published score which is the quite the standard in contemporary performance] was... nothing short of brilliant. The rhythmic drive was surprising... so often it is played in a 'metronome-ic' style, but not here... not uneven, but with an ebb and flow that again took my ear to that of a real carillon. Of course, the St. Sulpice organ is something special. I would love to hear what Oliver Latry would do with this...

[@ringeradam4575]

I've never heard of this piece until now... Golly! This would make excellent fight-in-a-church music (for a film)

[@somethingjane8]

It is wonderful to hear this recording again. Dupré the improvasateur at the height of his game. This is a dark, powerful, rendering of of one of his finest compositions. He doesn't stick closely to the score, but who cares!! He wrote it!!

[@omahas9000]

Positively unbelievable...remarkable...the accoustics...the organ....the organist....words do not suffice.

[@simonsteam]

The people that think Daniel Roth never uses the 32ft bombarde obviously havent been to the St Sulpice.he uses it all the time when hes playing.Still roars its way down the nave.

[@advisorC101]

The true power of a french organist!

[@HeinrichCKuhn]

Wow, just wow! Amazing!

[@ds1868]

Good sound quality! Is it me or does the 32' Contra Bombarde have more definition back then? Sounds a little bit more like the St Ouen reed, a compliment in itself. Thanks for posting JFS, look forward to more!

[@virtuoso4107]

The organ sounded very much more clearer than today!!

[@wilhakkaart5116]

The man is an genius in his own right, and much neglected nowadays, its sad.

[@wilhakkaart5116]

Remember that at this time Dupre was already suffering from severe arthritus of his hands, so it is in mine opinium a hell of an performance!

[@JFSnail]

I have read that someone revoiced it during the last restoration!

[@a55b47]

JF, keep up the good work !! We francophile organ lovers salute you !!!

[@organum74]

Really extraordinary, magnificent. Bombarde 32' explosions, brillant chords. I think that nobody will "feel" St Sulpice organ like Marcel Dupré, it is like Pierre Cochereau with Notre-Dame de Paris, these were "their" organ.

[@organum74]

I like Daniel Roth too, the present St Sulpice'organist, who recorded a CD with Preludes et Fugues of Dupré. Marcel Dupré was a great, great organist !!! What can we say else ?

[@TheTherese3]

My Dad said it best."There's the French and everybody else!"

[@advisorC101]

He was 73 years old.

[@marsvltor2]

On stop clarity - listen to the companion video to this - that of the Cortege et Litanie. There is much, much more character to the S Sulice organ than now...

[@julianguffogg]

Good registration

[@TheTherese3]

The Epic Master makes it seem easy.

[@ds1868]

I'm sure he uses it simonstream. The point being made though rests with the fact that the 32' Bombarde on this old recording has more definition, compared to today post 1989-92 restoration. Do you not agree?

[@tonreijnaerdts2900]

Unsurpassable!

[@a55b47]

JF, I see you found the Forbidden Places pix of St. Sulpice. That bluish-tinted one of the full length of the nave is one of most spectacular photos I have ever seen of the interior of a church. I don't know how those guys got up into some of the places they photographed, but they obviously don't suffer from vertigo, do they?

[@eameece]

Also the Jongen Toccata in D-Flat, if you liked this one!

[@TheShadowGuitarist16]

Actually back in the day those were just called Bombarde's

[@jackgedzelman5314]

This is decidedly not mere organ noise. It is wonderful music admittedly replete with an excess of harmonic and tonal color. But God must have been great indeed to create a living being that could compose such wonderful gibberish.

[@classicallymusic]

does anyone have the sheet music for this?

[@MolnarPohdap]

classicallymusic it's from Sept Pièces, op. 27 by Marcel Dupré, published by Éditions Bornemann, Paris.

[@TheTherese3]

French giants are common.easily spotted with binochulars,and good stereo systems.

[@claudemasse8028]

Good?

[@gert.ronner]

how can anybody but the actual composer play it better?

[@johanbrand8601]

That's possible yes.

[@johannuscro]

I don't understand this.

[@ds1868]

That would explain it then. The 1989 'clean' was considered a success I think, but the 32' reed now seems restrained - if Daniel Roth ever uses it at all!

[@dowlingkrafs2614]

Heavy metal was invented in France.

[@mathijs1987j]

I have to say, I'm not that fond of this interpretation. I love this piece, and the interpretation by Robert Delcamp (the only other interpretation that I know), but this version seems a bit crude, almost. Still, I look forward to Dupre's version of the Final.

[@thekathal]

mathijs1987j How can you not accept this interpretation!? It’s Dupre playing his own piece!

[@AlejandroMeloMaths]

@@thekathal Composers aren't always the best interpreters of their own works.

[@StephenMain]

It was recorded late on his career. While brilliant in many respects, there are obvious finger slips. That doesn't detract from the recording, but it's important to accept.

[@Rheinlander95]

The f in measure 54 was a quarter beat short.

[@JoshuaSobel]

You aren't in a position to say that -- the composer is playing.

[@JoshuaSobel]

P.E. Gottrocks no, but my point is that he can play it however he damn well pleases..... And NOBODY plays Dupré better than himself.

[@mikesmovingimages]

Really? That's all you can comment on?

[@lkrupp215]

You pulled that straight of your ass. You literally made it up

[@Darth321111]

There is no F in bar 54, or anywhere near bar 54 for that matter

[@organgrind]

Not wild about this sort of thing. In my head I think of it as 'organ-noise' and I don't think it matters much who is playing it. If you wanted to listen to it, I would have thought an acoustically dryer church would give musicians a better chance of actually hearing it. I am allowed to not like it, I hope?

[@nielsgrundtvignielsen9005]

Of course you are, and - even without listening to the clip - I find it entirely probably the acoustic could be doing the piece no favours.

[@nautilusnexus5120]

Music like this is sublime. At the same time I understand you are not ready for it. A 5 year old child wouldn't appreciate the finest brand of Cognac either. In time one will learn.

[@heschernp]

It's amazing to hear comments such as this one from non-organists! Do you self a huge favor - go to Paris - and hear these pieces being played by Daniel Roth at St. Sulpice - fabulous accoustics with one of the great organs of the world. You will be a changed person. This is the organ and the room that inspired so many organists such as Dupre and Widor to improvise and write great works for the organ!

[@richardwilliamjohnson8566]

you would prefer drier acoustics???? are you kidding.... if music like this didn't exist, i would not be interested in organ music in the slightest.

[@julianmatthews5785]

@@richardwilliamjohnson8566 exactly, one has to play according to the acoustics of the church, but more reverb is almost always better. having no reverb in a church really kills the atmosphere and sound of the organ, as many organists say, the room the organ is in is one of, if not the most important factor of how good the organ sounds.