Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY ALTERNATIM! 7 FRAUKE JURGENSEN Organ THE FRIDAY SCHOLA
Alan Cooper
13 November 2009
King's College Chapel
For this, the seventh in the series of Alternatim Recitals, the spotlight moved to France and to the music of François Couperin. Following on from last week’s improvisational concert given by David J. Smith, these fully scored pieces should nevertheless give us something of the flavour of the music that we know Couperin himself would likely have used in Alternatim. This was the first in the final few of these Friday concerts all of which will focus on Couperin’s Messe pour les couvents. Listening to this Friday’s recital given by Frauke Jurgensen it was easy to understand why this composer’s fellow countrymen awarded him the sobriquet “Le Grand”. As Frauke herself said to me after the recital, the Aubertin organ felt as if it were happy to be on its home ground of French music. As with most music in the French style, the labels of the various sections give an accurate idea of what to expect inside the box. The recommended timbres of the music are more than just that, they are part of the very corpus and structure of the pieces.
The organ played a magnificent prelude to the Kyrie with a “plein jeu”, a rich fulsome processional to open the Mass. Fugue sur la Trompette was exactly that, a celebration in blazingly joyful counterpoint. Récit de Chromhorne opened with gentle flute stops which were soon joined by the Crumhorn in what was a beautifully elegant aria.
Trio à deux dessus de Chromhorne et la basse de Tierce sounded like a joyful French country dance or perhaps a carol once again delivered in joyful counterpoint.
Finally, the Dialogue was exactly what the label says, a marvellous conversation between two mixtures on the Aubertin. The Friday Schola punctuated this music, (or should it really be the other way around) with sturdy singing of muscular plainchant.
The Schola were also in fine voice introducing the Offertoire sur les grand jeux. This was really a Royal March in three parts: fast, slow and fast again. In the final section the glowing military sounding brass stops on the organ began to burst out into little fanfares. If this was the music that congregations heard in Couperin’s day I am sure they could not wait to go to Mass. As it was, only a small but loyal crowd turned out to hear a glorious performance from Frauke crowned by the best singing so far from the Friday Schola.