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Possible plans for expansion of Cavaille Coll at St.Sernin,Tolouse

Caddis

New member
Hi to the forum.
Considering the size of the C.C. organ at St. Sernin,it begs the question wether there were any plans by Cavaille Coll or Charles Mutin to expand the organ to a 4 or 5 manual instrument,possibly with the addition of more pipes and stops?
 

acc

Member
I'm not aware of any such plans for St-Sernin. Maurice Puget expanded it only slightly in the 1930s.

There is one thing one can mention about St-Ouen in Rouen (built around the same time), namely that Cavaillé-Coll would have liked to build a much bigger instrument there, given the size of the church, but was prevented from doing so by the size of the (already existing) organ case.
 

Corno Dolce

Admiral Honkenwheezenpooferspieler
Outside of Paris, the organs of St. Ouen in Rouen, St. Sernin in Toulouse, and St. Etienne in Caen are absolute gems in the crown of Aristide Cavaille-Coll.
 

acc

Member
acc - St. Ouen in Rouen is without doubt my favourite CC organ ... just love it.

Same for me, CT! When I listen to it, especially by a great player who really knows how to handle it (like Ben van Oosten), I'm in heaven...:angel::angel::angel:
 

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
I have Ben's Widor and Vierne symphony cycles played on that beast, they are PURE bliss. Trust the Dutch to beat the French at their own game.
 

Corno Dolce

Admiral Honkenwheezenpooferspieler
I'm listening to Daniel Roth play Vierne's 1st and 2nd Symphonies at St. Sulpice and I'm in Heaven. Yes, I like Ben van Oosten's interpretations very much but Maitre Roth takes it to a whole new level.
 

Caddis

New member
Any plans by Maitre Roth to do a complete set ?,would be nice to have a fifth set of Vierne's symphonies:grin:
 

acc

Member
For Symphonies 1 & 2, both van Oosten and Roth are nice, but my personal preference goes to Yves Castagnet at St-Ouen, on a CD that's now long out of print (Castagnet also recorded a stunning Dupré CD in the same series, with the Symphonie-Passion and Évocation, also at St-Ouen).

As for the "Roth" cycle, the publisher's own forum mentions that Daniel Roth will record Symphonies 3 & 4, but that 5 & 6 will be done by Stephen Tharp (who is yet another excellent performer).
 

pcnd5584

New member
Here's a pic of the organ in St. Sernin in Toulouse:

http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/gallery/pix/france/toulouse_stsernincavailleco.jpg

From my understanding of the materials, there had been no push to increase the size of the St. Sernin instrument either by Cavaille-Coll or Charles Mutin.

I doubt that this woud be necessary - the present superb instrument is certainly loud enough for this basilica, even after the removal of the unfortunate additions by Maurice Puget - who also swapped certain ranks between departments; this has also been reversed.
 

mathetes1963

New member
For Symphonies 1 & 2, both van Oosten and Roth are nice, but my personal preference goes to Yves Castagnet at St-Ouen, on a CD that's now long out of print (Castagnet also recorded a stunning Dupré CD in the same series, with the Symphonie-Passion and Évocation, also at St-Ouen).

As for the "Roth" cycle, the publisher's own forum mentions that Daniel Roth will record Symphonies 3 & 4, but that 5 & 6 will be done by Stephen Tharp (who is yet another excellent performer).

No slam against Mr Tharp, but I LOVE Roth's playing of the Allegro from the 6th @ St-Sulpice, posted on Youtube. :cool:
I'd post the link, but YT is blocked at my workplace. :(
 

dll927

New member
All well and good, but sorry, that picture is NOT St. Sernin. It think it's St. Ouen.

Methodist Girl, I'm sort of surprised you had never met that organ. It's justly quite famous, and is one of few C-C organs still pretty much in its original state. There have been quite a number of CD recordings done on it.

St. Sernin is in the city of Toulouse, sort of in the south-central part of France. Google the city and the organ, and you should find a good bit of information. In California, San Luis Obispo is named after a bishop of Toulouse - the full name of the mission is San Luis, Obispo de Tolosa (in Spanish). For those innocent of Spanish, it means, St. Louis, Bishop of
Toulouse.
 
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