Toccata, si bémol mineur (op. 53, nr 6)

Probably everyone who plays an instrument as an amateur or as a beginner, has a dream of once being able to play an iconic piece from the repertoire for his or her instrument. I know I do. For me it is Bach's Passacagia. And this Toccata.

When I first heard it, the harmonies and tonal colours of this piece were totaly foreign to me, yet somehow enormously fascinating. And I listened again and again and again to it. And every time I listened to it I got goose bumps and tears in my eyes near the end of the piece. What a marvelous piece. And the dream started of perhaps one day being able to play it.

When I decided recently the time had come to try and play this Toccata, I thought it best to approach it slowly and first play some of the other well known French Toccatas, like the ones from Gigoult, Dubois, Boëllmann, Widor and then take on Vierne's Toccata.

I did play Gigoult's Toccata a few weeks ago and wanted to continue with Boëllman's Toccata. However, Vierne's Toccata kept nagging at me "play me, play me, play me". So, skip the preparation and just play it!

I cannot describe how much I love this piece. I can not describe how exhilarating it is to play it. It is literally a dream come true. I guess the joy at the end of the video says all.

It is not a perfect performance, tjere is still a lot of practising to be done. Yet, I played it and I wanted to share my dream.

There are of course already more than enough outstanding performances of this piece available in the concerthall. Yet surprisingly, this is the first one on the sample set of St. Omer. Even though it is a relatively early instrument of Cavaillé-Coll, I think this Toccata sounds very good on it.