Berceuse à la mémoire de Louis Vierne

Cochereau's Berceuse at 00:00
Vierne's Berceuse at 6:58

Some days ago, I went to a concert by Olivier Latry at Notre-Dame, and he played this Berceuse which has been first improvised by Pierre Cochereau around 1970.

It was if the time ad been supended and Cochereau back here with his lush harmonies and his so typical way to use Notre-Dame organ ; 7 fantastic minutes of poetry which took me fifty years back. So, I immediately wanted to play it (as transcribed by Frédéric Blanc).

Like Vierne's Berceuse, it's on the popular cradle song "Dodo, l'enfant do". But the contrast is huge between Vierne and Cochereau.

Vierne wrote a short calm and serene piece, with the gentle 2/4 rollicking characteristic of most berceuses and a single sweet registration.

Cochereau, instead, improvised a kind of a great "nocturne", with some agitated moments (see from 2:22) and a far less serene general atmosphere. He uses several contrasted registrations, whose some are characteristic of his way to use Notre-Dame resources :
- a huge use of 32'
- chamades used as a solo stop (3:35)
- a dialogue between 8+2 2/3' at RH and a clarinet coupled to Ped, on a background of voix céleste at LH ( 4:22), etc.

I had an intense pleasure to learn this piece and I hope you will like it. Cochereau was not only the guy of breakneck 6/8, he was also a poet...