The organ music of the French Classical era is especially stylish. Full of flamboyance and lavishly ornamented, it recalls the dance forms and distinctive overtures of 17th-century French opera. This music reached its zenith in Nicolas de Grigny’s 1699 Livre d’Orgue, a brilliant collection of liturgical compositions that was copied by Johann Sebastian Bach, linking his style to that of the French masters. The splendid pipe organ at First Lutheran Church of Boston dates stylistically to this same timeframe, but speaks the language of Bach’s Germany rather than Grigny’s Reims. In this recital, Jonathan Wessler will present Grigny’s seminal collection of French music for the Mass, using the same sounds that Bach would have heard.
