The organ in brief

Les facteurs d’orgue :
Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1878)
Victor Gonzalez (1939)
Georges Danion/S. A. Gonzalez (1977)
Michel Gaillard/Manufacture Aubertin (2013

Built for the 1878 World Fair and the Trocadéro concert hall in Paris, this monumental instrument (82 stops and 6,500 pipes) was the “showpiece” of the most renowned organ builder of the time, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. The greatest musicians were all eager to play this prestigious organ, which was used for the first performances of the Requiems by Maurice Duruflé and Gabriel Fauré, the Organ Concerto by Francis Poulenc, and key works by César Franck, Charles-Marie Widor, Marcel Dupré, Olivier Messiaen, Jehan Alain, Kaija Saariaho, Édith Canat de Chizy, Thierry Escaich and Philippe Hersant. In 1939, the organ was reassembled in the new Palais de Chaillot by Victor Gonzalez, then in 1977 transferred to the Auditorium de Lyon by his successor, Georges Danion. In 2013, the organ was restored by Michel Gaillard (Manufacture Aubertin), who returned it to its former splendour. Its wide range of stops means that today it can handle every repertoire, from Bach or Couperin to the greatest Romantic and contemporary works. Outside Paris (the organs in the Maison de la Radio and the Philharmonie), it is the only large concert organ in France. In June 2019, it hosted the inaugural International Olivier-Messiaen Competition for organ.

DISCOGRAPHY

– Les Nuits hallucinées
Escaich (Les Nuits hallucinées, Violin Concerto, La Barque solaire)
Thierry Escaich (organ) / Orchestre national de Lyon / Christian Arming and Jun Märkl (conductors)
CD Universal 2011

– Organ Symphony
Saint-Saëns (“Organ” Symphony, Cyprès et Lauriers, Danse macabre)
Vincent Warnier (organ) / Orchestre national de Lyon / Leonard Slatkin (conductor)
CD Naxos 2015

– Fairy Tales
Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition), Liszt (Concerto pathétique), Tchaikovsky (Sleeping Beauty)
Véra Nikitine (organ) / Katherine Nikitine (piano and organ)
CD Hortus 2017

– Vocalises
Purcell, Handel, Franck, Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninov, Glière, Puccini, Satie, Piaf, Bernstein, Parker, Jackson, improvisations
Romain Leleu (trumpet) / Thierry Escaich (organ)
CD Aparté 2017

– La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc
Silent film by Carl Theodor Dreyer (1928)
Karol Mossakowski (improvised accompaniment at the organ)
DVD/Blu-Ray Gaumont 2017