Description
This is the first solo organ recording from Richard Cook, the Assistant Director of Music at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, and features one of the most significant solo organ works of the twentieth century: the Symphonie-Passion, Op 23 by French composer and organist, Marcel Dupre (1886-1971), together with other virtuoso organ works by Dupre, the Deux Esquisses, Op 41, and the Variations sur un Noel, Op 20 The recording is also the first featuring the St Edmundsbury Cathedral Choir under their new Director of Music, Claudia Grinnell, who was appointed in 2024, who contribute Dupre's Quatre Motets, Op 9, and the plainchant on which the four movements of the Symphonie-Passion are based. As a devout Catholic Dupre was intimately acquainted with the liturgical rhythm of the Church's year, and the music on this recording has been arranged in an order to reflect this, taking us on a journey from the expectation of Advent and the joy of Christmas to the contemplation of Lent and Passiontide, culminating in celebration of the resurrection at Easter, and giving a unique presentation of Dupre's organ and choral works. Richard Cook was appointed to St Edmundsbury in 2019. Before this he was Sub-Assistant Organist and Director of the Voluntary Choir at Worcester Cathedral. The St Edmundsbury organ was build by Harrison & Harrison of Durham in 2010.