Malta International Organ Festival – French Impressions – Organ Solo

Svetlana Berezhnaya explores the colours and elegance of French music in an organ recital at St Augustine’s Parish Church, Valletta. Rameau’s lively character pieces and Lefébure-Wély’s pastoral scene lead to Improvisations on Poulenc’s themes, music by Pierné, Fauré’s Pavane and two favourites from Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals. Franck’s Prélude, fugue et variation offers a lyrical contrast before Boëllmann’s Suite gothique brings the evening to a stirring close.

Svetlana Berezhnaya (Russia) – Organ

Jean-Philippe Rameau – Six pieces: Allemande; Menuet I; Menuet II; Les Sauvages; L’Égyptienne; La Poule

Louis-James-Alfred Lefébure-Wély – Scène pastorale

Berezhnaya – Improvisations on Poulenc

Gabriel Pierné – Prélude; Scherzando

Gabriel Fauré – Pavane

Camille Saint-Saëns – L’Éléphant and Le Cygne, from Le Carnaval des animaux

César Franck – Prélude, fugue et variation in B minor

Léon Boëllmann – Suite gothique: Introduction-Choral; Menuet gothique; Prière à Notre-Dame; Toccata