Louis Vierne Symphonies No. 3 and 5 / Kummer

Louis Vierne, who was from birth practically blind with cataracts, received his first piano instruction at the early age of six. His first moving encounter with the sound of a church organ also dates from this time. From October 1880 he studied with the blind piano teacher, Louis Specht, who taught at the Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Young Blind People) in Paris. When Vierne first heard César Franck (later his teacher at the Conservatoire for a short time) at the organ of Sainte-Clotilde, it was a profound experience for him: “I was left speechless and went into a kind of ecstasy.” Following the death of César Franck, it was Charles-Marie Widor who continued to further his development as an organist. In 1892 he appointed him as his assistant at the great Cavaillé-Coll organ in Saint-Sulpice. Although he was passed over several times when applying for positions as organist, in May 1900 he was unanimously elected by a prominent jury as organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, a position he held until the day he died. Travelling was a burden to him, but despite this in the 1920s he went on concert tours of Europe, Canada and the USA, where he was acclaimed as a composer and organist. He used these trips to collect contributions for the maintenance and rebuilding of his organ at Notre Dame. On 2 June 1937 Vierne presented an organ concert in Notre Dame together with Maurice Duruflé. As he was about to begin an improvisation he suffered a heart attack from which he died soon after. The funeral service was held in Notre Dame Cathedral on 5 June - his organ remained silent. // Complete Organ Works, see Carus 18.150 Personal details

Personal details

Samuel Kummer was born in Stuttgart in 1968. After receiving his diploma from the lycée he studied church music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart. In the organ classes of Christoph Bossert, Werner Jacob and Ludger Lohmann he acquired a broad repertoire of music in many styles, which is complemented by his ability in the field of organ improvisation (he studied improvisation with Willibald Bezler, Wolfgang Seifen and Hans Martin Corrinth). During his studies he took part in many master classes. Upon his graduation in 1997 he received an award for organ improvisation. Since 1988 Samuel Kummer has given organ recitals in Germany and elsewhere, appearing in such countries as the Netherlands, the Baltic states, Poland, Hungary, Russia, the USA and Central America. He has played in important concert series such as the European Organ Festival at Maastricht, the International Bach Festival at Warsaw, in Riga Cathedral, in the St. Petersburg Philharmonia and the Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City. In 2005 he appeared again at the Cathedral in Guatemala City, where he had played in 1999 in aid of the restoration and upkeep of the historic Walcker organ of 1937. Samuel Kummer is a prizewinner at international organ competitions. In 1996 he won the 1st prize at the “Concours L’Europe et L’Orgue” at Maastricht. From 1998 to 2005 Kummer was District Choirmaster at the Martinskirche in Kirchheim/Teck. Numerous oratorio performances under his direction (most recently Frank Martin’s In terra pax) and his “Organ Music at Market Time” series met with a warm response. In 2005 Samuel Kummer was appointed organist of the Dresden Frauenkirche. He is co-initiator of the “Dresden Organ Cycle,” a joint organ recital series presented at the Kreuzkirche, Hofkirche and Frauenkirche in Dresden. As a soloist Samuel Kummer appeared with the Chemnitz Philharmonic in 2007. His CD of organ works by Bach and Duruflé (Carus 83.188), released by Carus-Verlag at the end of 2005, earned him unanimous praise from the international specialist press. Soon after its release it was already rated in the classical charts. Personal details