DESCRIPTION:
Phillip Sear plays an unattributed piano transcription of a piece for salon organ written on 25th August 1893 during a transatlantic voyage.
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The French organist and composer Félix-Alexandre Guilmant (1837--1911) had a major career as composer, teacher and performer (he was the first important French organist to tour Northern America). Alas, he wrote very little for the piano - but he did prepare piano transcriptions of a dozen or so of his shorter organ pieces, which were published around 1891. He may well have also transcribed himself this piece, which was published in a piano arrangement in 1911. It was written aboard the ship 'La Bourgogne' while Guilmant was voyaging to the USA to play at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 where he gave four recitals. It was the first of three successful visits to the USA, but his greatest achievement there was his last visit in 1904, where he gave an incredible series of 40 different programmes from memory at the Festival Hall (the then largest organ in the world), during the St. Louis World’s Fair. This is surely one of the most incredible musical feats of all time! Guilmant was lucky - in 1898, 'La Bourgogne' collided with a British ship and sank off Nova Scotia with the loss of 549 lives, including three members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (read about it here: http://bit.ly/2ac4g9t ).

My thumbnail shows a woman walking along a corridor in the California museum ship 'Queen Mary' - showing the sort of scene that Guilmant might have seen on his morning transatlantic strolls (from Piqsels: https://tinyurl.com/y3uvsh8j ).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- Played by Phillip Sear
http://www.psear.co.uk (Email: piano4@psear.33mail.com
WhatsApp: http://wa.me/441444483794 )