Aude Heurtematte - Organ Musique-Musik-Muziek 1530-1660: Organ Built 2010 in ca. 1630 Rouen Style (2020)

*****Five-Star Review in Choir & Organ, December 2020!
Writes David Ponsford: This is a most exciting modern organ, built in 1630s style . . . It is refreshing to hear this varied programme in which the most modern composers are Louis Couperin and Franz Tunder. Aude Heurtematte also includes wors by Caurroy, Attaignant, Titelouze, praetorius, Hassler, Sweelinck and Scheidt, all beautifully played with a wonderfully varied tonal palette, including a Rossignol, all for the price of one CD.

Aude Heurtematte is titulaire (holder of the post of organist) of the Church of Saint-Gervais in Paris where eight generations of the Couperin family preceded her as titulaire and played all or parts of the same organ she plays. The organ is essentially intact as completed with five manuals in 1768 by François-Henri Clicquot. It contains tonal material dating to the two-manual organ built in 1601 by Matthijs Langhedul, the 1628 enlargement of it to three manuals by Pierre Pescheur, and the further enlargement of 1676-1714 by Alexandre and François Thierry. Her recording of François Couperin’s Masses for the Convents and for the Parishes on this organ (Raven OAR-153), composed ca. 1690 while he was titulaire of Saint-Gervais, receives superlative reviews from all who hear it as well as the music press.

She is also titulaire of the Lutheran Church of les Billettes in Paris.

Aude Heurtematte has served as professor of organ at the Conservatoire of Lille, and subsequently in Strasbourg at the Académie Supérieure de Musique and the Conservatoire Régional. She has taught generations of students of many nationalities.

Aude Heurtematte successively studied with Gaston Litaize, Jean Boyer, and Odile Bailleux, and then continued study of French music of the 17th and 18th centuries with Jean Saint-Arroman and Michel Chapuis. She concentrated on stylistic refinement with intense study, using instruments representative of specific European periods and places.

She continues an international career as concert performer, faculty of numerous academies devoted in particular to French Baroque music, and as a jurist of international competitions. Her recordings are acclaimed, especially those of the Couperin Masses on the Raven label, works of Sweelinck on the Multiwave label, and of Boyvin on the Tempéraments label.