To clean up printing errors in this piece, you’ll need John Scott Whiteley’s book on Jongen’s organ music. He corrects many instances of pitches and other issues, and I feel he’s right.
Note that Jongen’s instrument in Brussels didn’t have a mixture on the Récit. The organ had plenty of mutations, so his music can authentically have a bit of a ‘snarl’ to it, if you care to experiment with registration.
The temptation should be resisted to play the manual notes staccato. They are already ‘detached’ in a high-low trading pattern. One chord should give way to the other, sixteenth to sixteenth, in a legato fashion with no intervening staccatos.
Tempo: My sermon on French Symphonic tempos is a litany: Slow down, for heaven’s sake. Lord, hear our prayer. ‘Fast’ and ‘grand’ are different things. But don’t take my word for it; see Jongen’s note at the very end of the piece. And as usual, keep in mind that published metronome markings always tend to be impossibly fast, which is the case here. I hover somewhere between 92 and 100, and that’s plenty fast in most acoustics.
Measures 5-6: I believe the tenor D-flats in the Pedal should have staccato markings, like their siblings up to that point. But notice that the low G-flat in measure 6 is now legato into the C-flat.
Measures 13-16: I am ambivalent about the lack of staccatos in the Pedal eighths, and Whiteley is silent about them. It seems that with so many staccato markings now missing, compared to the first few measures, legato is now Jongen’s intent. But I also know that this publisher was notoriously lacking in the proofreading department. Ultimately, it seems to me that the off-beat nature of the motive would retain more ‘presence’ with staccato eighths. Put in modern street terms, it would ‘pop’ more.
Measure 15: I find the addition of the tirasse Positif more effective if moved to measure 18.
Measure 18: I believe the final A-flat in the left hand should be G-flat, to match the right hand. And that would make the final note of the left hand G-natural.
Measure 26: I break my own rule of full-value notes here. I release the Pedal A-flat a sixteenth-note value earlier, to ‘clear the air’ for the landing on the Great.
Measures 27-31: The Pedal now has a melody; so listen mercilessly to it, and keep it under control. Avoid double-dotting. Ditto later measures such as 51-63, etc.
Measure 40: I find the Swell box closure is more effective if moved to measure 42. Smoother that way. But save some of that closure for 46.
Measure 40: Jongen calls for a move to the Positif at the final eighth of that measure. I move the right hand as instructed, but I move the left hand after the downbeat. Smoother that way.
Measure 81: You’ll need to release the Pedal low D-flat a bit early to add its anches. An eighth rest ought to do it.
Measure 82: I tie the final G-flat of the right hand into the downbeat. Ditto 84 into 85.
Measures 98-100: Listen carefully to the pairs of notes in the Pedal, and make sure they all sound consistent. My teacher Clyde Holloway busted me one day in the Messiaen Transports de joie, where I was playing a similar two-note motive in the Pedal with whatever foot/feet was/were available – in other words, what was more convenient [comfortable]. He said that they actually sound different if played with different pedaling from pair to pair. And he was right. And from that moment on, I decided that my comfort is secondary to consistency and integrity. Same thing for the Pedal note pairs throughout BWV 552i.
Measures 101-102: That’s not a cadenza. It is part of the continuing crescendo. Keep it in tempo. The slower note values will automatically create more crescendo for you. Go ahead – give it a try.
Measures 105-107: Depending on the organ, I keep the 32’ reed in reserve until here. It makes a more powerful appearance that way, rather than gurgling its way through, say, measure 101.