Trois Danses - Jehan Alain
Roman Hauser
Three Dances from the Jesuit Church, Vienna
For this extraordinary interpretation of Jehan Alain’s Trois Danses, organ, dance, and video came together in Vienna’s Jesuit Church. Organist Roman Hauser performed the rarely played work on the church’s monumental Späth organ, while dancers Elena Bottaro and Francesco Daniele Costa responded with improvised movement, capturing the contrasting characters of each of the three dances. The result is a powerful and expressive production in both sound and image.
Organ
The Jesuit Church is among the most magnificent baroque interiors in Vienna. Its organ was built in 2003–2004 by Hartwig Späth Orgelbau (Freiburg, Germany) and is modeled on the tonal ideals of French Romantic instruments. With over 2,700 pipes across three manuals and pedal, this organ is visually and sonically imposing, offering a rich, colorful sound palette, perfectly suited to Alain’s Trois Danses. At the time of the recording – prior to a planned renovation – some of the manuals required considerable physical effort to play.
Recording
The production took place under challenging conditions: during the COVID-19 pandemic, with masks and in freezing winter temperatures. Organ recordings were made exclusively at night, sometimes as late as 3 a.m., to avoid daytime traffic noise. The intense cold within the church limited the duration of the dance recordings, as the stone floor quickly became unbearably cold for the performers.
From a technical standpoint, the production was equally ambitious. A suspended AB main microphone system (Sennheiser MKH 20) was complemented by additional room microphones (Schoeps MK2H, MKH 50) and spot mics (Line Audio CM3). Visually, the team employed a crane, gimbal, and slider to capture the dancers and the space with cinematic movement. Two Sony A7S cameras were used for filming. Lighting was a combination of LED panels, two Arri 5 kW, and several Arri 1 kW units, designed to highlight the church’s architecture and the expressive gestures of the dancers.