RIP Marie-Claire Alain

 

I was saddened to hear of the death of truly one of the World's greatest musicians, Marie-Claire Alain. I love her playing of Bach and French Baroque repertoire.  She was 86.

The following was borrowed from www.artsjournal.com.   Her father, Albert Alain (1880-1971), was an organ composer and builder. Her composer brother, Jehain Alain, died fighting the Germans in 1940, at the age of 29. Marie-Claire played his works all her life.

A second brother, Olivier Alan (1918-1994) was an organist and director of the conservatory in their birthplace, Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

 Marie-Claire Alain recorded the complete organ works of J S Bach no fewer than three times.

If you have a spare 9+ minutes, please take the time to watch the following video of her playing at St. Bavokerk, Haarlem, The Netherlands. The massive organ was built between 1735 and 1738 by German Christian Müller. At its completion, it was the largest organ in the world. Many famous people have played on the organ, including Mendelssohn, Handel and the ten-year-old Mozart in 1766.

We love the quote at the beginning of the video, which we assume was from her, that says: "When you listen to Bach, you see God materializing."

Richard III had a Brummie accent

"Ground penetrating radar" was to find the remains of Richard III.  I've been very curious about this story.  For instance, what led researchers to a parking lot in the first place?  And how can they determine with certainty such details as a man's accent?   Perhaps the most significant question to come out of this was from by a late night comedian who asked, "is there no limit to how far these paparazzi will go in invading British royal's privacy?"