Seven Pieces (x2)

Famous also for his superb improvisations and exacting teaching methods, today we remember him through his compositions. This week’s show explores fourteen virtuosic and poetic movements from the pen of French wizard Marcel Dupré. We’ll hear the three Preludes & Fugues of Opus 7 that set the world afire when he was but 26, four of his Opus 50 Inventions, ironic miniatures, concise as an Oriental haiku, and the Seven Pieces which he wrote during his tours in the 1920s and dedicated to friends he made along the way.

In his twenties he astonished the world with virtuosity, by his thirties he’d amazed us with his depth, and throughout his career we regarded him as the best there was. The great man himself teams up with his former students and advocates in a musical offering of Seven Pieces, times two.

Listen to the program

Program Broadcast dates:

November 11, 2002

Music played in the program

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Prelude & Fugue in B, Opus 7, number 1 –Ben van Oosten (1845 Cavaillé-Coll/Église de la Madeleine, Paris, France) Dabringhaus und Grimm MDG 316 0952

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Prelude & Fugue in f, Opus 7, number 2 –Diane Meredith Belcher (1998 Glatter-Götz; Rosales/Claremont UCC, Claremont, CA) JAV CD-115

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Prelude & Fugue in g, Opus 7, number 3 –Kalevi Kiviniemi (1980 Virtanen/Cathedral, Turku, Finland) Mils CD-8925

MARCEL DUPRÉ: 4 Inventions, from Opus 50, number 6 in d; Number 8 in b; Number 19 in B; Number 12 in f#, –James Biery (1972 Casavant Frères/Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul, Providence, RI) Naxos 8.553862

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Souvenir, Number 1, from Seven Pieces, Opus 27 –Graham Barber (1977 Klais/Ingolstadt Münster, Germany) Priory PRCD260

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Marche, Number 2, from Seven Pieces, Opus 27 –Suzanne Chaisemartin (1890 Cavaillé-Coll/Église Saint-Ouen, Rouen, France) Motette CD MOT 50251

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Pastorale, Number 3, from Seven Pieces, Opus 27 –Suzanne Chaisemartin (1862 Cavaillé-Coll/Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris, France) Aeolus AE10221

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Carillon, Number 4, from Seven Pieces, Opus 27 –Michael Murray (1862 Cavaillé-Coll/Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris, France) Telarc CD-80516

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Canon, Number 5, from Seven Pieces, Opus 27 –Jeremy Filsell (1979 Möller/St. Boniface Episcopal, Sarasota, FL) Guild GMCD 7180

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Legende, Number 6, from Seven Pieces, Opus 27 –Robert Delcamp (1996 Casavant Frères/St. Paul Episcopal, Augusta, GA) Naxos 8.554026

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Final, Number 7, from Seven Pieces, Opus 27 –Marcel Dupré (1862 Cavaillé-Coll/Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris, France) Mercury LPSR-90229