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Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens: Organ Works (2000)
One line of the traditions of French organ playing and symphonic writing for that instrument can be traced back to Jaak Nikolaas Lemmens, the Belgian organist, composer, and teacher who flourished in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century. His innovative romantic style was to have a direct influence on his students, the organist/composers Alexandre Guilmant and Charles-Marie Widor, and through them, Louis Vierne and Marcel Dupré. Yet if aural comparisons are more telling, the Lemmens works on this MDG release will remind the listener most immediately of César Franck. The three sonatas -- darkly hued and chromatically restless pieces based on Gregorian chants -- were models for the organ symphonies of Widor and Vierne and likely influenced Franck's Grand Pièce Symphonique, among other works. So strong are their character and development that they stand out as the most accomplished works here and make the shorter pieces seem less significant. However, the Cantabile and the Prière have a quaint charm and... Hide synopsis
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