St George’s has scored a major coup in securing the services of the in-demand Latry (50), who has been hailed as the “rock star” of the pipe organ world. As the “titulaire” or chief organist of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, he is held in high esteem as a superb player, particularly of French music, and is renowned for his extraordinary ability to improvise in a wide variety of styles.
This knack for creating aural fireworks on the spot will be put to the test during his performance on the grand organ at St Mary’s, which will include an improvisation in symphonic style on a theme that will be handed to him at the end of the concert. Also on the programme is the entire Fifth Symphony by Widor, from which the popular Toccata comes.
At St George’s, apart from Bach’s achingly beautiful chorale prelude for Lent, O Mensch, bewein’ dein’ Sünde groß, and his Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, the programme will feature music by French composers including two of Latry’s predecessors at Notre Dame, Louis Vierne (died 1937) and Pierre Cochereau (died in 1984 and succeeded by Latry).
There will also be a movement from Marcel Dupré’s Symphonie-Passion, which was conceived as an improvisation in a most unlikely location: on the largest organ in the world at the Wanamaker Store in Philadelphia, USA. As with his St Mary’s performance, Latry will end his concerts at St George’s by improvising, in exhilarating style, on a popular theme that will be handed to him there and then.
These concerts are the third in a series of four by world-renowned concert organists that St George’s Church is presenting to celebrate the installation of its impressive new Rieger organ. Incidentally, the change in the style of organs being built by Rieger is, to a large extent, due to Latry’s influence: he persuaded the firm to introduce a warmer sound to its instruments alongside the more classical voicing that most music aficionados are familiar with.
It was through Latry that Frenchman Michel Garnier, who voiced the organ for St George’s, joined Rieger. It is therefore apt that Latry has been invited to perform on the new organ, in addition to playing at St Mary’s Cathedral.
Endowed with a natural gift for music, Latry was only 19 when he was appointed organist at Meaux Cathedral. At age 23 he won a competition to become one of the three titular organists at Notre Dame, and in 1990 he succeeded his teacher, the renowned blind French organist Gaston Litaize, as an organ professor at the Academy of Music at St Maur-des-Fossés. In 1995 he became organ professor at the Paris Conservatory, a position he still holds.
Having performed in more than 50 countries on five continents, Latry considers himself an ambassador of 17th- to 20th-century French organ music, and also has a particular interest in contemporary music.
In addition to his concerts and teaching, Latry has made his mark through recordings and has several CDs to his credit. Among his many accolades is being named “International Performer of the year” by the American Guild of Organists in 2009. He was also awarded a Fellowship “Honoris Causa” from the North and Midlands School of Music in 2006, from the Royal College of Organists in 2007 and from the McGill University in Montreal in 2010.
Booking for Olivier Latry’s concerts on 15, 16 and 17 November 2012 is open at Computicket.
For enquiries about the concerts at St George’s only, please phone (011) 482-1606, or email music@stgeorges.co.za.
For enquiries about the concert at St Mary’s Cathedral, please email Sidney.Place@worldonline.co.za. For the performance at St Mary’s Cathedral on 17 November 2012, free ‘park-and-ride’ buses will run between the Wits Education Campus (the Linder Auditorium) in St Andrew’s Road from 6.30 p.m.
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