LDV95

18 LISZT • INSPIRATIONS To be more specific, what is your view of Liszt as an organ composer? What strikes me above all in Liszt’s works for organ is his imagination, which led him to choose sources as different as a Bach cantata, a theme from a then- fashionable opera or the four letters of a name. This passage from one universe to another works in both directions: the Légendes from which I’ve taken Saint François d’Assise: La prédication aux oiseaux (St Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds), an essentially sacred piece, were initially composed for the piano, the secular instrument par excellence. In the three major works for organ, the approach to the instrument is profoundly innovative while still remaining highly pianistic. Every organist played the piano in those days. However, the ‘doors’ Liszt opened to other realms of sound were explored only later, by figures like Charles Widor and César Franck. In fact, it was not until Marcel Dupré that organ and piano techniques merged under Liszt’s influence. That’s one reason I have chosen versions by Jean Guillou for the Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H and Marcel Dupré for the Variations on ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’. They offer a different approach to the original works, because they incorporate elements of Liszt’s later piano versions of them.