Olivier Latry-ND-11-may-2008-Widor-Toccata

[profdodo1]

Notre Dame Sunday High Mass - the organ has a terrific sound for anyone with any feeling, a knee and tear jerker. This Widor the correct speed, not like the awful jet speed of Diane Bish.

[silverstartrucker]

Poor recording on cheap equipment. My large Fisher studio speakers just growled. With the Wanamaker organ they rumble like a earth tremor.

[TheOneAndOnlyYeti]

@silverstartrucker

He might have used a small camera for the recording ... for sure it is not professional but I do not care. I am glad he did it^^

[phillyorganist2010]

ThePipeorganman's comment is ridiculous. I"ve been in Notre Dame and have heard this incredible organ, and it sounds wonderful. Why do people like to fashion themselves as snobs to sound intelligent?

[ThePipeorganman]

I am sorry to say this after working on over 20 pipe organs in my life Cavaillé-Coll made there instruments so they would never half to be restored if they just left it alone it would of never had to have been worked on. Look and St.Sulpice it still has its original console and it will always have it. There's a quote "if its not broke don't fix it. Unfortunately they have completely destroyed the original sound of this wonderful pipe organ today it sounds like crap.

[ntheo0101]

beautiful performance.

All the poetry shows up.

[ntheo0101]

A wonderful performance, all the poetry shows up.

Reminds me the ringing bells by Easter sunday.

[benjaminlathbury]

6 people's speakers are broken...

[mrvergunst]

What a great feeling Olivier Latry has with this fantastic piece!

Too bad one can't really feel this organ shake you up from behind the pc...

[jutescrim]

My god....this is the best stately but powerful. But no double thump a t the end so 9 ot of 10

The greatest composition in the world and I've been there

[GoPatriots100]

@jutescrim personally I don't like the double thump even tho it is written

[MrJamest3333]

What a pity there is so much background noise, all the people leaving, have they no respect for music.

[Classicalguy12]

@MrJamest3333 Nope, I believe they do not, sadly.

[silverstartrucker]

If you are going to record My Latry at least use good recording equipment...

[TheCurtthehurt]

This is the perfect instrument for this piece. I can't describe what i feel when i hear this beautiful piece being played.

[VincentParisIDF]

Exact, c'était à la sortie de la messe du soir (18h30) de Pentecôte, en 2008. Dommage qu'il y ait (inévitablement) ce bruit de fond de mouvement de foule... Latry joue la Toccata assez lentement, me semble-t-il (cf. l'interprétation fulgurante de Pincemaille, à Saint-Denis), mais il sait merveilleusement rendre ces lames de fond, dignes de Stravinski !

[silverstartrucker]

The best version of this piece on Youtube is by Frederick Hohman !!!

[jutescrim]

@silverstartrucker I will listen, thanks

[mrsticks28]

Not an organist, but have also heard dozens if not hundreds of versions of this Toccata. I'm a fan of slower tempos... gives this piece the majesty it deserves...

[dking70]

Wow, that pedal divison really stands out...... Like this version on this piece. Not to slow not to fast. Excellent.....

[Jamil501]

It's not too slow. Too many organists try to show off how fast they can play it. And. that is not what this piece is about. It is the grandeur.

[juaniluco888]

1. Too slow

2. Poor sound quality

3. The new sound of the Organ

What happened over those years?! I still do admit that notre dame is a fantastic organ but nothing what it used to be. The reeds are not as lively- a bit shocking :(

[101francis101]

Would the poor sound quality be the main contributor to the less lively sounding reeds. Listening to recent Latry recordings and older Cochereau recordings I couldn't say that the organ in its current state isn't as good as it used to be.

[juaniluco888]

@101francis101 no, but it makes a compleately different sound-if u hear the other recording of this peice-same organist-same organ-but different tone. Appearantly they lowered the wind pressure of the organ since the last 80s;early 90s.

[Brideshead09]

@juaniluco888 It's faster than Widor himself played it...

[juaniluco888]

@Brideshead09 well it's too slow for me!

[CathedrlCarillonneur]

Man, that's some pedal division.

[TheKingOfAmazement]

Olivier Latry Is Awesome

[MrAlex413x]

wow very good !

wil he of used the 32" bombrade?? anyone know im not sure sounds nice tho!

[Vectorcomputer]

I think when people play this piece too fast, it's generally because the space they're in doesn't have the reverb to carry it at a slightly slower tempo. Try playing it on a German Baroque type instrument relatively dead hall and you'll see what I mean.

[Brideshead09]

@Vectorcomputer YES. Someone with sense at last...

[veltraute]

Great tempo! Most people play it too fast.

[pianoandpipes]

OR too slow. This is a GREAT tempo here though, eh?

[OrgelUndMich]

Widor actually mourned the fact that so many played this piece to quickly.

But, I agree Olivier Latry has an excellent tempo

[silverstartrucker]

Poor quality sound...

[lorbo77]

what a diminuendo! a master..

[signfid376]

but nevertheless, olivier latry is an excellent organist!

[Organistcomposer21]

Amazing! I would give 5+ stars for everything exept, WHY ARE ALL THOSE PEOPLE TALKING?!

:-)

Thank you so much for this video.

[mohaa909]

it is played at the end of the service, people are going out of the church in stead of listening to this mighty piece of music on this gigantic organ ;)

[ptituba]

Trop lent, à mon gout...

[mohaa909]

NOOOO, great tempo, it must not be played so fast!!!

[TrackerAction]

Yes! I too love this tempo. If too fast it reminds me of a mickey mouse cartoon. Here, it is still exciting, yet has breadth. . .gravitas. BALLS!!!

[orgaman]

oé sauf que si tu veux vraiment respecter les articulations écrites y a qu'a ce tempo que c'est vraiment possible.

[piterdevries]

Is there an album with Latry playing this piece? I heard it on the radio earlier this morning, but have had no luck tracking down an MP3 I can purchase. Please PM me if you can assist me. Thanks.

Anyway. I enjoy all organ pieces; when I heard this one I was blown away.

[willowthebored]

Yes, you can buy Latry's recording circa 1986 on iTunes of the Fifth and Sixth symphonies. It's one of my favorites, even though his use of the en chamade reeds is a little excessive at times.

[willowthebored]

And that's a better sound than it makes now, mind you, somebody had the brilliant idea to rebuild it circa 90-92 and now I like to refer to it as 'Cavaille-Coll's Fart Machine'. The en chamade reeds were replaced and now they sound like high-pitched, long-winded farts, and the Bombardes have been revoiced to sound more like a trombone, or alternatively a low-buzzing fart. So, this is the good recording. :D

[signfid376]

its not much of a cavaille-coll anymore anyways.... its so anglo-american sounding, just look at the console and compare that to the saint sulpice..... and agreed, the bombardes sound a lot like fart cans. im not saying this is a bad organ, but whoever did the restoration needs to die

[mpsnknox]

Um.... Anglo-American organs dont sound like that. Of course it all depends on what time period your talking about. But by-en-large "Anglo-American" organs have a dominace of flute work/diapason tone compared to reeds.

[willowthebored]

True statement. However, listening to the reeds individually (there are recordings on the Notre Dame de Paris website) you'll hear that the 32' octave doesn't sound quite like what you hear in a Bombarde. Also, the en Chamades are sitting on 13 to 15 inches, which would make Cavaille-Coll grit his teeth, methinks, if he ever heard, and they are very, very blatty by themselves, though the reverb covers it up here. It still sounds like it used to be a Cavaille-Coll, but there IS a difference now.

[organmaster2101]

You might say that the console is bad looking compared to St. Sulpice. But this is an a Cavaille-Coll Rebuild and has a C.C. Console. The organ of St. Sulpice was also a rebuild and has the original case work of a 18th century organ, who built it i cannot remember but the organ is different sounding from sulpice because it has had so many rebuilds and sulpice is basically the same as Cavaille-Coll left it in 1863

[livzdave]

The 'current' Notre Dame console is not a rebuilt CC - it was newly installed during the 1991 'computerized rebuild' - if you want to call it that. The guts of the console is all electronic. The 18th century St. Sulpice organ was built by Clicquot in 1781...

[organmaster2101]

I knew about the console of the Notre dame organ, and St. Sulpice is a Cavaille-Coll Rebuild of Clicquot's organ

[octavegeigen4]

The casework at St Sulpice is that of the previous Cliquot organ.

[willowthebored]

@organmaster2101

I believe it was a Clicquot. Also, the Positif Clarinet and Euphone were replaced by a Baryton 8' and a Bassoon 16' respectively, a Principal 8' on the Recit, a Septieme 2-2/7 and a Chamade on the Solo, and Principals 16' and 8' have been added to the Pedal. That said, it's tambor is effectively unchanged, and many of those changes were carried out by Mutin, Cavaille-Coll's direct successor, and therefore as kosher as if Aristide had performed the changes himself.

[Jacobre156]

great recording of the song, but come on people, Notre Dame is a church just like the oue you go to on Sunday...you would be quiet there...think of the people who use Notre Dame as their regular Sunday church...HAVE SOME RESPECT!

[christylynn81]

it's actually really quiet compared to the couple times i've been there, and one of those times was on Good Friday.

[enchammade16]

This truly isnt a Cavaille-Coll instrument any longer. It has been modified, changed, and re-voiced so many times, and so many stops added, that the true voicing and beuaty of ACC's work has been lost. It's a beuatiful instrument for what it is, but it doesnt deserve to where the ACC name tag. Ecspeciakky since they computerize the whole thing now. A tur example of ACC is St Sulpice and St Ouen.

[Guilloufan]

that could be, but there are more organs in the whole world who are changed.

[willowthebored]

I'd disagree that switching to an electric action and digital console was necessarily a bad idea (though they should have replicated the old casing...), but I can't help but be a bit angry at what they've done to it. Adding all of those en chamades was a bad idea, as I see it, they're too oppressive and loud, and they wreck the image of the case, to boot. Beyond that I think it's lost some of the rich, dark undertone that used to make it marvelous. It's still a fine instrument, though.

[tjugofyra]

Vierne did not!

He planned the new action!

[Angultimmarik]

You see: An really extraordinary organist like Latry knows that the Toccata is played not too fast.

[cromorne]

Agreed!

[ds1868]

Technically Olivier Latry is a superb organist, but time and again when I listen to him play I feel he is just 'playing the notes'. I'm not sure if he is able to get 'inside' the music and bring the spirit of the music and composer alive, just in the way Pierre Cochereau was more than able to do. This performance of the Final from the 5th is a good example: exemplary in every way, but compare it to PC's recording from 1973, and it's left for dead, compared to PC's exciting performance.

[willowthebored]

I have to agree...this feels like he's just going through the motions, honestly. Even the registry sounds underpowered. That is NOT that instrument's full organ, through most of this, that's for sure. I will compliment him and say that the tempo is actually perfect, but the fact that there's no real emotion behind this sort of kills it...Roth and Cochreau offer better performances.

[ContraBourdon32]

Superb performance!! Thank you for the video/recording : )

[skyler6290]

Dear God in Heaven, I absolutely love the great Cavaille-Coll instruments!! And to have none other than Olivier Latry playing the superb instrument at Notre Dame and Widor's famous Toccata - - - oh, just died and went to heaven myself. . .

[a55b47]

I've heard this several hundred (1000?) times, but I can NEVER resist listening to it performed on one of the great French instruments.

[filouusa]

1000 times would be "thousands" ! For being french i totally agree with you, and especially from Notre Dame's most extroardinary organist on a hundred (100) years old organ !!

[Rui02Senor]

No words can express Latry's bright talent...

[OlivierLatryFan]

It was the sunday of the pentecost mass, the cathedral was full (they say it can contain 2000 people), there was no way to avoid noise, especially when everyone is trying to go out...

[tjugofyra]

There must be more than 2000 people!?

But of course, you can't sit in the galleries...

[101francis101]

Why would anyone try and leave when they could stay and listen to that!

[jutescrim]

@OlivierLatryFan Is there a cd?

[3NUNS]

@OlivierLatryFan ... getaway from those awful priests

[litanijebral]

Beautifulll ... too bad it's mixed with other noises ... brilliant, anyhow:)