Robin: Fantaisie Mécanique - Music with Organ

Orchestre Régional de Normandie, Robin, Jean-Baptiste

95479

Jean-Baptiste Robin (b. 1976) has made two previous recordings for Brilliant Classics: the complete organ works of his fellow-countryman Jehan Alain (BC94233) and an imaginative recreation of ‘The American Symphonic Organ’ (BC94726) which includes Jean-Baptiste his own, well-upholstered transcriptions of music by Bizet, Debussy, Mahler, Rachmaninov and others. Now he presents his own compositions: the Fantaisie méchanique for organ, timpani and strings which gives the album its title; Etoile intérieure (Inner Star) for piano and organ, Récits Héroïques (Heroic Tales) for trumpet and organ, Three Solos and Cinq Versets sur le Veni Creator for solo organ, Chant de l’Âme (Song of the Soul) for clarinet and organ and Regard vers Agartha for four hands organ. In Robin’s music, Ostinatos and circular melodies reminiscent of the ticking and turning hands of the dial of a clock, knock against the warmth of a tempestuous, floating melody. The mediator which manages to reconcile and eventually unite both forces, is a machine, moved by a particularly intricate and complex mechanism, which yet carries the imprint of an unconventional and pliable musicality, capable of moving the senses: the ‘machine organ’. These circular melodies can often be traced from one work to another, linking them in a renaissance of Lisztian thematic transformation.

CD x 1

Brilliant Classics

13.11.19

5028421954790