Timothy Tikker, Merklin & Kuhn organ (1936), Église Saint-Bonaventure, Lyon, France

Raven OAR-186 OC485 ★★★★★

Ticker, as a pupil of Jean Langlais, is well immersed in this music from a teacher who knew Tournemire well. The organ is chosen carefully too: a similar period and disposition to the Sainte-Clotilde organ rebuilt to Tournemire’s requirements in the 1930s. The focus of this recording are the Sept Chorales-Poémes pour les Sept Paroles du Xrist as well as the earlier Triple Chorale of 1910. The Triple-Chorale is a three-in-one homage to Tournermire’s teacher, Franck – it is clever, yet never quite as engaging as Franck’s Chorales. Herein is often the issue with Tournemire: the written compositions rarely demonstrate the daring inspiration found in the famous improvisations. The Sept Chorales-Poémes are important and profound works though, and it is hard to find a better performance than this. Overall, an extremely well researched and executed recording.