Charles Tournemire’s L’Orgue Mystique is a singular monument of the organ music of the 20th century. Between 1927 and 1932 the organist of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris created 51 Offices for the Sundays and feast days of the Catholic church year. The collection is divided into Christmas, Easter and Whitsun cycles. Each Office follows the course of the Mass with Prélude à l’Introït, Offertoire, Elévation, Communion and Pièce terminale.
Gregorian melodies are the underlying material. Tournemire, however, does not merely quote them but freely paraphrases their lines: modal turns of phrase, floating sound surfaces, highly chromatic condensations and transitions that seem improvised turn the old chant into an unmistakably modern language. The concise middle movements often preserve an intimate liturgical character, while the closing pieces unfold chorale, fantasia, toccata or fugue into large architectural arcs.
The Christmas octave, Epiphany and Pentecost connect the beginning and the fulfilment of the church year. The three large closing pieces build from the Postlude-Choral through the free Fantaisie to the Whitsun Fantaisie-Choral, in which Tournemire concentrates colour and movement into a powerful profession of faith.
The fixed five-movement layout provides orientation without making the individual Offices uniform. Tournemire responds to the content of the feast, the chorale model and the liturgical function with changing proportions and sound characters. Often the strongest effect arises from contrast: a barely moving Elevation may be followed by a richly coloured Communion, and a line that seems monophonic may develop into a many-voiced web in the closing piece. This dramaturgy turns each Office into a small sacred symphony.
Sandro R. Müller shapes the music with clear phrasing and a pronounced feeling for colour. On the large Rieger organ (1995), Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche Zweibrücken, even dense chordal fields remain transparent; flutes, strings and reeds trace the various liturgical moods. Despite the variety of instruments used, the cycle remains coherent in interpretation: meditation and ecstasy appear as two poles of the same spiritual movement.
This recording is part of the Cybele complete edition produced over more than two decades. It documents not only one of the most extensive organ cycles of all, but also Tournemire’s historical position between César Franck and Olivier Messiaen. The album is therefore equally suited as a self-contained programme and as a chapter of a musical journey through the entire church year.