After a long wait and hundreds of hours of fine voicing and tuning, the new Casavant organ at Montreal’s Maison symphonique had its first public audition today at the hands of French master organist Olivier Latry.
Latry, the titular organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris told Radio-Canada reporter Francine Plourde that, “I was really very impressed with what Casavant has realised with this instrument, which is a pipe organ with a wide dynamic range.”
It took three years to build this instrument made up of 6,500 pipes, played by four manuals and a pedalboard. Like Toronto’s Roy Thomson hall organ, it has two consoles — one to behold from centre stage, another built into the back wall above the choir gallery.
Jacqueline Desmarais, a prolific supporter of arts and culture in Quebec, is said to have paid for the entire cost of the new instrument, estimated at $5 million.
The official inauguration of the Orgue Pierre Béique — named after a longtime manager of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra — takes place on May 28. The concert will include the premiere of a new Canadian commission, as well.
John Terauds