Dialogue sur les mixtures (de la Suite brève)

"Dialogue sur les mixtures" is the 4th and last movement from the "Suite brève", composed in 1947. It provides an opportunity to hear the mixtures of the different keyboards of Regensburg.

It's a joyful rondo on mixtures stops whose different motives sound both modern and medieval, not quite a surprise with Langlais, with plenty echo effects (and not so comfortable keyboards changes). It can evoke some music by Poulenc in ints neo-classical mood.

It includes a more introvert central section ( 1:21 )which is a modern version of the 17th Récit de cornet.

After which the cheerful rondo comes back till the end.

The tempo is far under the score indication. But I can't play it faster and the big acoustics provides a welcome pretext. Anyway, the Cd recordings I could check have generally durations between 2'50 and 3'15, roughly like here. Slower, it would loose some of its "pep", imho.

The most problematic was the central part on the cornet. The score's tempo is quite on the fast side and doesn't give much time to the music to breathe. On the other side, the score's tempo, the fully notated ornaments and the indication "les petites notes sur le temps" (the small notes on the beat) suggest -imho - not to loiter too much neither to pour out one's heart too much . So, while using a tempo more moderate than the score, I tried to keep a relatively steady pulse with a rubato "inside each pulse only". I dont' know if the result is too stiff or too loose ; may be both :-).