Mailbag: “Where to find...”

January 15, 2010

Dear Michael,

I am trying to locate the following CD, which you included in your Provence to the Pyrenees program. I called H Direct and they found nothing. Do you know if it can be obtained, or if it is out of print? LOUIS-NICOLAS CLERAMBAULT: Suite on the 2nd Tone (Plein Jeu; Basse de Cromorne; Trio; Caprice sur les Grands Jeux) Marie-Claire Alain (1735 Moucherel/Cathedrale Sainte-Michel, Albi) Erato 45460 Also, I noticed that on the Pipe Dreams program guide, the church is noted as Sainte-Michel, Albi, but websites on the church name it as Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile, Albi. Thanks for your time.

David

 

David,

Thanks for the correction...so many organs, too much confusion.
As for Madame Alain’s recording, the Erato label was subsumed by another conglomerate and, basically, put into mothballs.
Oddly, there are few easily accessible good recordings of the Clerambault suites, though they have been recorded many times. The best CDs are mostly European in origin, but this Canadian production (on a marvelous historic French instrument) is quite fine:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=111178&name_role1=1&comp_id=161157&bcorder=15&name_id=33832&name_role=2
However, Olivier Vernet studied with Madame Alain, and plays brilliantly, too, and his recordings are superb, though perhaps a bit more of a bother to order:
http://www.olivier-vernet.com/discographie-olivier-vernet.php#clerambault
Good luck. And we’ve made the correction on the internet site.

 

jmb

 

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