Yon: Complete Organ Music. Vol.1

Pietro Alessandro Yon (1886-1943) was born at the foot of the Alps in Italy. His musical talent was soon discovered and he went to study in Turin and later in Rome with Sgambati (piano) and Renzi (organ). His fame as a brilliant organist soon spread internationally and he was offered a post as organist in Manhattan, New York, where he settled for life in 1907. Pietro met with enormous success as a concert performer, holding his first concert at the Aeolian Hall in New York in 1914.

During the course of almost thirty years of feverish activity, he gave around 1500 performances, 23 of them in the famous Carnegie Hall. By 1926 he had made an outstanding name for himself, acquiring the post of Organist at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the foremost seat of Catholicism in the USA, renewing and expanding the events organized at the Cathedral. He invited the soloists of the Metropolitan Opera to perform during services. He made friends with Caruso and Toscanini, who performed his orchestral and choral works.

Yon's extraordinary organ works are clearly inspired by the enormous possibilities of the newly built organs in the USA. They include several Sonatas, a Concerto Gregoriano, 12 Divertimenti for organ and many occasional works, showpieces and studies.

This first volume of Yon's complete Organ Music is played on the magnificent Fisk organ of the Lausanne Cathedral, by organist Tommaso Mazzoletti, winner of the Premio Nazionale delle Arti in Rome. The full specifications of the organ are included in the booklet.