Paolo Bottini, Vegezzi-Bossi organ (1855, Chiesa Parrocchiale di Pavone Canavese, Bossi/Giani organ (1862/2010), Duomo di S. Stefano in Casalmaggiore

DA VINCI CLASSICS ★★★★

The name Giacomo Puccini is hardly one associates readily with the organ. But he did come from a family of organists and held several positions prior to moving to Milan in 1880 at 22, to complete his studies and where his career was taken firmly in other directions. He continued to take private organ lessons and even taught the organ himself. The works here were written prior to 1880, however, and consist of 19 short sonatas, and numerous other Versetti and other mostly brief, works for the Mass.

Unsurprisingly, given the milieu, the operatic style is ubiquitous and so the real question is perhaps whether any of this music gets beyond the Petrali/Padre Davide-esque clichés found in so much 19th-century Italian organ music, and whether there are hints in these pieces of the composer Puccini was later to become. Well, maybe. Inevitably there are plenty of Marches, Polonaises and the like. Occasionally, however, there is a hint of lyrical drama which goes beyond the everyday, for example in the extended ‘Elevazione per Organo’ which Paolo Bottini states, somewhat hyperbolically I think, ‘marks an apex in young Puccini’s creativity’. Bottini, whose creative disc of Busoni transcriptions I reviewed here enthusiastically some years ago, plays with great virtuosity and deftness of expression on two splendid 19th-century orchestral organs of the Lombard school, percussion and all. Specifications and registrations would have been most welcome.