Ben van Oosten’s impressive discography of French organ music has somehow neglected one very important person: Cesar Franck. Now the Dutch organ wizard fills this...

Ben van Oosten’s impressive discography of French organ music has somehow neglected one very important person: Cesar Franck. Now the Dutch organ wizard fills this glaring gap with a marvelous show of virtuosity on four releases bringing together the whole of Franck’s organ oeuvre, from his early efforts to the three great masterpiece cycles. Once again van Oosten performs on the legendary L’Orgue a Michel-Ange in St. Ouen’s Cathedral in Rouen. Today this organ, one of Aristide Cavaille-Coll’s most magnificent instruments, is preserved in its original state. Cavaille-Coll and Cesar Franck were close friends. Franck tested many brand new organs in Cavaille-Coll’s workshop and wrote the Trois Pieces for the inaugural concert of the Trocadero Organ on the occasion of the World’s Fair in 1878. Good fortune for posterity: Franck’s premiere manuscript with the original registrations is extant and offers outstanding insights into his idea of sound. This idea is shaped essentially by the colors of a symphony orchestra. As he wrote to Cavaille-Coll, “My organ, it is an orchestra!” However, Franck’s beginnings as a pianist are in full evidence: broad chords and accompaniment arpeggios like those in the Fantaisie in A major are rather untypical of organist’s hands. It is thus that Franck developed a unique personal style. Ben van Oosten conveys all of the aforementioned in remarkable fashion.