How Notre-Dame’s organ got the kiss of life
NewsThis is the official blessing for the reopening of the great organ of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.
Not everyone was impressed by the esoteric repertoire, least of all some world leaders. Here’s a reasoned critique.
Personally, I quite liked the Erik Satie playout riff:
And this was the best: Dudamel conducting the Saint-Saens 3rd symphony finale, with organ obbligato.
What a glorious moment to hear the organ once again. But how awful it was to have Saint-Saens glorious music abbreviated in such an unmusical way.
They can’t really play the entire symphony at this kind of opening event.
I THINK the logic was supposed to be like the unfolding of the last movement of Beethoven’s 9th:
you start with noise to represent the chaos from the fire, and then comes the moment when the bass interrupts “O Freunde, nicht diese Töne”, and eventually a beautiful chorus emerges to represent unity and resurrection , etc etc.
But it failed. It was a Big Fail.
All those instaneous memes of world leaders looking VERY puzzled.
That was the funniest moment!
You know they were thinking, “Is It Me? Or is this bat shit crazy stuff?” but also conscious that the cameras are on their faces, so they better not look like unsophisticated yokels in front of the French.
Oh, Olivier Latry, you should’ve gone with the tried and true, what you did at Notre Dame right before the fire, good old Bach Toccata and Fugue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2uuE5ZQN6A
You would’ve had the congregation pf world leaders in a standing ovation.
I was also disappointed by the organ “répertoire”, Olivier Latry is so good when he plays Bach, but apart from that, what a glorious moment!
When we saw the catastrophic state of that wonderful cathedral after the fire, who really believed that it would be resrored to its former glory in 5 years as President Macron promised?
Congratulations to all the teams, particularly to Philippe Villeneuve, the head architect, what an achievement!
And thank you to the donors, big and small.
True to form, French commentators talking during the music. It’s the same at the Roland Garros tennis championships where they talk during the rallies.
The whole ceremony is available without commentary on the Élysée’s Youtube.
They also talk during orchestral rehearsels. They love a good community feeling.
How many hundred years did it originally take to build the cathedral? 5 years to rebuild it. An amazing accomplishment worthy of celebration. It would have been nice to get the complete Symphony (and piano concerto) but it’s understood that attention spans are short these days.
This is the true style, and sound, of French cathedral organ music. Latry has is a superb improviser, as has been the case with his predecessors, and French cathedral organists for many years.
Maudlin, turgid, inoffensive, easy listening music can be found in almost any other church anywhere in the world.
Bravo Mr. Latry!
Apparently it is traditional, during the priestly call-and-response consecration of an organ, for the organist to respond with improvisation rather than a repertoire work. In this respect, Latry — and his colleagues, who took turns with the 8 improvised responses — were respecting tradition. And it was certainly fitting for Latry’s first response to represent the organ reawakening from a fiery fever dream. And this representation of chaos, too, has its historical French roots — think of Rebel’s representation of chaos in Les Elemens from 1737. The subsequent responses showed a progression from the awakening from nightmare to hopes for the future in their progression toward more consolatory and traditional tonality.
Fiery fever dream, my foot. It sounded, and looked, like a petulant child banging on the keys. Incidentally, the apparently thin-skinned and rather bitter Latry, sounds much like a petulant child in his most recent Sueddeutsche Zeitung article, so it’s not a surprise. Who gives a fig about this or that tired, ill-advised French “tradition”. When you have world leaders, the eyes of the world and the faithful upon you at a singular moment in history, you don’t squander it so.
Well, he had his chance to make the statement of his life, and we saw what he decided to do. At least Anna Lapwood is willing to play something people recognize.
This was a grand celebration of a profoundly French national, religious, historical, cultural, artistic, and architectural icon. Why not let them express themselves in the way they see fit and simply be grateful to witness such a magnificent event? The eight organ responses to the archbishop’s voice are meant to be entirely spontaneous. I found the critique suggesting that tried and popular pieces should have been played—because they’ve “always worked” in the past—somewhat embarrassing. The event is meant to be unique, and, in my opinion, nothing could make it more so than such a momentous improvisation.
To Elle,
I appreciate your point and, of course, Olivier Latry and his colleagues are fantastic organists.
I just think that the music they played that night will not have been easily understood by the public, whether inside the cathedral or outside (in front of their television set).
It’s more a music for very enlightened amateurs.
Rebuilding Notre Dame cost less than Kamala’s election campaign…
While we are at it… what about the cost of Trump’s election campaign?
The Kamala campaign spent 1.9 billion to Trump’s 1.6.
https://www.ft.com/content/c3613e1b-c15d-47b8-a502-400c4114c09e
Latry’s improvisation was not a good one, especially that banging on the keyboards was disturbing. Also at such occasion you don’t spread Messiaen’s dissonances over the heads of people who don’t know about classical music, you choose something much more general and accessible and above anything else: more tonally harmonious, just like the building. Now it sounded as a 21C intrusion into a revived harmony from the timeless past.
Latry’s performances were less than stellar and the selections horrible. There should have been music of Vierne, this most important titular organist of this church, along with Franck and Widor, the two most famous French composers for the organ. The thrilling toccata from Widor’s 5th organ symphony, though trite is uplifting and never boring. Franck’s Piece Heroique also would have been an excellent selection. The atonal junk written for the Cathedral opening was boring, loud and disconnected.
I’ve only had a chance to listen to the first improvisation (nothing written for the occasion!) For the most part it was an unexceptional, but exciting improvisation in the tradition of Franck, Widor and Vierne and in the style of Vierne. Those calling for Vierne are unaware of the great historical tradition of French organ improvisation.