LDV95

OLIVIER LATRY 21 For the Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H, you have chosen the ‘syncretic version’ by Jean Guillou. Liszt revised his original score of 1855 several times. Tell us about this score and Jean Guillou’s approach to it . . . Alexander Winterberger (1834-1914) gave the work its first performance on 13 May 1856, at the organ of Merseburg Cathedral. Liszt said of Winterberger, who was one of his pupils, that he ‘could play with his feet what many others would have found difficult to play with their hands’. The two versions of the Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H emerged from performances on several different instruments: the first version is perfectly suited to the post-classical style of the Merseburg organ on which it was premiered; the 1870 version is more reminiscent of the sound palette of Cavaillé-Coll. In the meantime Liszt had visited Franck, who had played the work on the organ of Sainte-Clotilde. This session must have opened up new sonic horizons for the composer, who incorporated in his second version crescendo-decrescendo effects that are much easier to realise on a French symphonic organ. The revisions (in which I include the piano version of 1871) testify to Liszt’s constant reflection, his quest for a language in perpetual evolution. Nothing is ever determined once and for all . . .