Patrice Caire plays the Trocadéro Organ

Patrice Caire playing the Toccata by Theodore Dubois (1837-1924) on an almost forgotten Cavaillé-Coll masterpiece. Dubois worked with Cesár Franck for 10 years as conductor of the choir in St Clothilde. He also became organist at La Madeleine church in paris and then becoming director of the Paris Conservatory.

The organ was built by Cavaillé-Coll for the Trocadero palace in 1878 under the guidance of Alexandre Guilmant. It was to stand in a 5,000 seat hall with terrible dry acoustics. The order for the organ was placed, but the builder could not deliver an organ of the size required in time, luckily he had already begun to build a 3 manual instrument for the church of Notre Dame in Auteil, and with the blessing of Father Lamazou, he would use this organ as a basis for the concert organ. The specification swelled to 68 stops with a new bombarde division and 32' pipework in the pedal.

In 1937 the Trocadero Palace was replaced (to popular acclaim) by the Challiot Palace, and space was found inside this building to house the organ. Victor Gonzalez rebuilt the organ in the neo-classical vein and installed in on a vast moving platform that could be moved out onto the stage when the organ was needed and hidden when not. The case was disposed of and the pipewrok displayed in a functional array. Virgil Fox made his famous recording of the Jongen Concertante with this organ in this hall with another very dry acoustic. Sadly in 1972 a decision was made to destroy the hall and to dismantle the organ, luckily the city of Lyon saved the organ and it was installed by Danion-Gonzalez in 1977 with a few additions (to make 81 stops) into the Auditorium Maurice Ravel, where it stands to this day. Sadly this instrument has largely ignored by record companies, apart from REM Editions of France who recorded several LPs with Patrice Caire playing. The organ is still fully functional and there are plans for many concerts in the coming months. This is the only CD of this organ as far as I know.

Patrice Caire (1949-1992) was taught at the Paris Conservatoire by Rolande Falcinelli, he also undertook study with Suzanne Chaisemartin, Jean Langlais and Louis Robilliard. He was Professeur de formation musicale at the Conservatoire de Lyon, and organist at St-Bonaventure, Lyon. He completed this recording less than a year before his untimely death.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Pipe
• Organ
• Patrice
• Caire
• Dubois
• Toccata

[chwidder]

Cavaille-Coll's Trocadero organ is not really "forgotten". It's just that the instrument reconstructed in Lyons, and on which Caire plays, hardly has any of Cavaille-Coll's beauty left in it...

[JFSnail]

Looking through an old copy of the Organ October 1591, its says Gonzalez added 14 stops mostly mixtures and mutations, and what Gonzalez didn't like he revoiced. Perhaps the mixtures dont help, they are rather boldly voiced. And the lack of casework may be a factor too.

[JFSnail]

Apologies for the poor sound quality! The organ was recorded VERY closely anyway, but if I have time I will try transferring again.

[marsvltor2]

Fascinating to hear the 'mortal remains' of a once historic instrument. Thank you so much for posting.

P :-)

[vleermuisje2]

Theodore Dubois for ever!

Al die organisten die zijn werk maar minderwaardig vinden en niet of nauwelijks spelen, moeten zich diep schamen.

Theodore Dubois heeft zijn werken in volle overtuiging en met grote muzikale inzet geschreven.

En ze zijn van grote kwaliteit.

Theodore Dubois for ever!

[EccentricRichard]

My God... what a truly hideous hall, what an ugly-looking organ. Really it ought to be repatriated to Paris, put in a proper reverberant concert hall like St George's Hall in Liverpool, or the organ hall in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow, and have all its fonds and reeds returned to the Cavaillé-Coll sound (but keep the upperwork for Messiaen, Alain, Duruflé et al) - plus a new case and Barker-lever action would be required, of course!

[gerardbedecarter]

@gerardbedecarter ... without any unoriginal mixtures and mutations.

[gerardbedecarter]

I would like to hear a performance of Piece Heroique on this organ.

[gerardbedecarter]

Thanks for uploading this and also the interesting annotations and comments. Certainly the organ now has a rather brash sound. Not bad, of itself, but perhaps not like the sound Franck knew. The review of Franck's performance of his Trois Pieces at the Trocadero complained that the hall was far too reverberant [rather than being too dry]. The organ in the Trocadero had four manuals.

[roethinger]

Je ne suis pas fou de cette toccata de Dubois :-/ :-\ ...mais elle sonne bien sur l'orgue de l'auditorium de Lyon,dernier "vestige" à l'heure actuelle des orgues des salles de concert en France!

Mais bon...on m'a encore soutenu récemment que l'Orgue était un instrument "sacré" et qu'il ne saurait bien sonner ailleurs que dans une église!!! :-( :-( Donc si ça vous plait tant que ça les organistes,moi je ne me bat plus pour populariser cet instrument!!!"

[leonboelmann]

grande Patrice Caire...

nitidezza ed equilibrio nella scelta della registrazione....

e gran bell'organo

[ThirtyTwoFoot]

This Cavaille-Coll organ was originally built for Notre Dame d'Auteuil in Paris. It ended up in the Palais de Chaillot and this is its resting place! (for the time being).