Gerard Gillen - Ave Maris Stella (2021)

Gerard Gillen Plays organ works by Flor Peeters and César Franck on the Great Organ of Dublin's St Mary's Pro-Cathedral. Fabulous playing by an acknowledged Master and one time favoured student of Flor Peeters. Dublin's Roman Catholic Pro-Cathedral, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin under the title of St Mary, was opened in 1825 and is built in classical Greek style in a copy of the Parisian Basilica of St Philippe de Roule. It is a church, though small for its cathedral function, with a warm and generous acoustic, particularly suited to organ sound and its projection. The present organ's origins date from the 1880s when a contract was entrusted to the Dublin but French-trained organ builder, John White. The present façade of the organ dated from William Hill's rebuild of the instrument c. 1900. Subsequent work was carried out by Henry Willis & Co in the 1930s before J.W. Walker's major rebuilds of 1971 and 1995 when some additional stops were added. This latter work was carried out in the context of an overall redecoration of the Pro-Cathedral. Over the years the Pro-Cathedral organ has become regarded as one of the finest examples in Ireland of the late nineteenth-century grand Romantic organ, and has since its original installation featured prominently in the many national liturgical occasions, which have graced the cathedral church.