Chaconne (Triptyque, Mvt. 1)

Dupré was invited by Paul Paray, his childhood friend and then conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, to come to the inauguration of the new Aeolian-Skinner organ at Detroit’s Ford Auditorium in 1957. In honor of the occasion, Dupré composed the Triptyque, Opus 51, which he later recorded on the organ of St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue in New York City. Sadly, Ford Auditorium was plagued by bad acoustics and was eventually demolished.

I have previously posted the last two movements of Triptyque on Contrebombarde. Here is the first, a Chaconne made up of twenty variations. Interestingly, not all of the variations contain the theme material.