Mark Steinbach, Messiaen: La Nativité

Aeolus announces a new organ recording, Olivier Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur (AE11401, SACD), recorded on the unaltered 1880 Cavaillé-Coll organ of Église Saint-François de Sales, Lyon, France, featuring Mark Steinbach, Brown University organist and distinguished senior lecturer in music. 

When the work was premiered in 1936 at La Trinité, Paris, that organ had not yet undergone the significant changes that took place in the 1965 renovation. The almost authentically preserved Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Église Saint-François-de-Sales is thus closer to the instrument Messiaen would have envisioned when he created La Nativié du Seigneur.

This is likely to be the last CD recording of this instrument for some time to come, as a restoration is scheduled to begin soon. 

For information: aeolus-music.com and https://vivo.brown.edu/display/mfsteinb

Lorraine Brugh

Lorraine Brugh is professor of music and Kruse Organ Fellow at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana. She recently served as director of the university’s study abroad program in Cambridge, England.

Prelude

Filled with sunshine and warm temperatures, June 17 in Lyon was a day Olivier Messiaen would certainly have approved. The cavernous dark room of the Church of Saint Pothin would have also certainly met with the master’s approval, its mosaic dome crowning the apse and the organ filling the entire east end of the nave.

The simple, modern organ case with dark red and brown wood, crowned with white and gold molding, did not give away what was inside. The organ was built by Joseph Merklin et Cie in 1876. It was completely renovated in 2004 by Daniel Kern Manufacture d’Orgues of Strasbourg. While Merklin built a two-manual instrument, it is now three manuals.

The resonance of Saint Pothin, with its two to three second reverberation, created an ideal aural space for the first round of the competition, which featured the works of Marcel Dupré and Olivier Messiaen. The ability to time an entrance following a rest or fermata became a distinguishing feature of the performers. Some were able to make the music just flow out of the reverberation; others were too eager to get on with the music.

More than fifty people gathered for this opening round of the competition. The usual motley crew of organists and enthusiasts, mostly over sixty, eagerly awaited the first candidate. A panel of nine judges, seven men and two women, held forth in front of the altar, conveniently blocking the console from view. The contestants sat in the nave, watching and listening to each other play. The six candidates, chosen from a field of seventeen applicants, were required to choose a prelude and fugue of Marcel Dupré and a piece of Messiaen. The contestants and their repertoire were:

Fanny Cousseau, France

Marcel Dupré, Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, opus 7, number 3

Olivier Messiaen, “Offrande et Alleluia final,” from Le Livre du Saint-Sacrement

Yanis Dubois, France

Marcel Dupré, Prelude and Fugue in F Minor, opus 7, number 2

Olivier Messiaen, “Dieu parmi nous,” from La Nativité

Charlotte Dumas, France

Marcel Dupré, Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, opus 7, number 3

Olivier Messiaen, “Alleluias sereins d’une âme qui désire le ciel,” from L’Ascension

Jacobus Gladziwa, Germany

Marcel Dupré, Prelude and Fugue in B Major, opus 7, number 1

Olivier Messiaen, “Alleluias sereins d’une âme qui désire le ciel,” from L’Ascension

Thomas Kientz, France

Olivier Messiaen “Dieu parmi nous”, from La Nativité

Marcel Dupré, Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, opus 7, number 3

Eszter Szedmák, Hungary

Olivier Messiaen, “Alleluias sereins d’une âme qui désire le ciel,” from L’Ascension

Marcel Dupré, Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, opus 7, number 3

The Olivier-Messiaen Competition, originally created in 1967 as a contemporary piano festival, was held in Paris until 2007. Now, in 2019, Bruno Messina, director of the Isère Agency for Artistic Dissemination (AIDA), is responsible for recreating it in the spirit allowed by the artistic project of Maison Messiaen, the artist’s residence in Matheysine. The Auditorium-Orchestre National de Lyon has become the home for this new international interpretation competition for the organ, under the chairmanship of Claude Samuel, founder of the Olivier-Messiaen Competition, former director of music at Radio France, and author of interview books with the composer.

The organ in the auditorium of Lyon was originally installed in Paris, built for the 1878 World’s Fair. It was situated in the large concert hall in the (former) Palais du Trocadéro and was the first Aristide Cavaillé-Coll organ to be installed in a French concert hall. The instrument was inaugurated with concerts in which Charles Marie Widor played the premiere of his Symphony No. 6 for Organ.

The organ was modernized and reassembled for the Exposition Internationale of 1937, part of the renovation of the Palais du Trocadéro into the Palais de Chaillot. Many works have had their premiere on this instrument, including Messiaen’s Les Corps Glorieux, performed by the composer himself on April 15, 1945.

The organ was moved and installed in Lyon in 1977 and most recently rebuilt in 2013 by Michel Gaillard, Manufacture Bernard Aubertin. The auditorium is today the only large organ room in France outside Paris.

The 2019 competition featured a newly commissioned work by Phillippe Hersant, a compulsory work in the competition’s final round. Mr. Hersant was present at the competition, serving as a jury member alongside several international Messiaen performers and scholars. Through the works of Hersant, Messiaen, and others, the competition offered a range of high level yet accessible organ literature to the audience. The competition was part of two weeks of programming that showcased the instrument for family outings, festive concerts, and high-profile recitals.

Olivier Latry served as president of the jury. On the day after the competition’s final round I asked him about his relationship to the competition’s revival. “I wasn’t involved in the planning of the competition from the beginning,” he explained:

"Others like Bruno Messina and Claude Samuel were central to transforming the event. I didn’t have to do anything with that; I was just asked to be president of the jury. The repertoire choices were also not mine, which was nice because it gave me new eyes and new ears. The planners eventually decided to make a competition for the organ, created out of the piano competition of twenty years ago. I think it’s more about the relation between Messiaen and the Trocadéro organ from the Palais du Chaillot that is the connection with Lyon than anything else. On that organ Messiaen played and dedicated some of his works when it was at the Palais du Chaillot. That connection as well has made a sort of comparison between the piano, the organ, and the competition."

Intermezzo

Where but in France could one walk into a laundromat at 8:30 in the morning and meet someone who had attended Thierry Escaich’s organ concert two nights before? As I struggled to figure out how to make the washer start, a French woman came to my aid and guided me through the complex maze on the wall to get soap and pay for the washer. As we waited interminably for our clothes to dry, we struck up a little conversation. Little was the only possibility as my French was un peu. I told her I was here for an organ festival, and she said she had just attended an organ recital two nights before. “Thierry Escaich,” I asked? “Oui, madame.” She and her husband are admirers and friends of Escaich and have known him for nearly thirty years. She told me Escaich was instrumental in the 2013 project to renovate the organ.

Her husband arrived and we chatted a bit more about the unusual duo concert we heard with Escaich and comédien Lambert Wilson. They said Wilson is one of the most celebrated actors in France, and what an honor it was for him to perform in Lyon. As the husband picked up the laundry bags, he said, “Well, we all have to get back to daily life sometime.”

Allegro assai

The second round of the competition moved to the auditorium, where the now five finalists each played a 20–25 minute program. This time there were two movements of a Bach trio sonata, a compulsory Messiaen piece from Livre d’Orgue, and a contemporary work. It was beginning to feel like a marathon to me, as fingers flew through the fast movements, carefully playing Messiaen’s many and intricate bird calls. The performers worked through their technically demanding literature quite deftly. At the conclusion of this round, four finalists were chosen to compete in the final round.

Final

The four finalists played again at the auditorium with a combination of compulsory and chosen works:

• In exitu Israel, a compulsory piece composed by Philippe Hersant, commissioned by the Olivier Messiaen Competition;

• a piece or pieces by Olivier Messiaen of eight to fifteen minutes in length chosen by the candidate; these pieces can have been played in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds (the quarterfinal round by recording, the semifinal round at St. Pothin);

• a composition written between 1830 and 1945 chosen by the candidate.

This repertory must not have been played in a previous round.

Sortie

On the day following the finals, the competition was complete, and the judges presented an afternoon concert. As I had already left Lyon, I spoke with Olivier Latry by phone and asked about the results of the judges. The judges awarded no first prize. The second prize was awarded to Thomas Kientz, the third prize to Yanis Dubois, the Messaien prize to Fanny Cousseau, the audience prize presented to Eszter Szedmák, and the contemporary prize to Yanis Dubois. As to why there was no first prize, Latry explained, “I really must confess that some of my colleagues in the jury and I were disappointed in the playing in the final round, which was not as strong to me as the previous rounds. The performances were not at the level of an international competition. In order to continue the level of the competition, we need to raise the level of the first prize.”

I asked him about the rigor of the competition, its pressures, and the amount of literature required of the players. He responded, “I must say that it was not that strenuous, compared to Chartres or Montreal. It was normal. When we play literature for a concert tour it is normal for us to have three hours in our fingers, sometimes more. So the rounds were 1½ hours of playing. That is normal for someone who wants to make a career as a concert organist.”

In noting the importance of expressiveness in playing French literature, I asked how much the technicalities matter, for example, the micro-rhythms in Messiaen. Latry replied:

"With Messiaen, one cannot avoid the notes and the rhythms. This is the basis of his music. They are givens, and Messiaen is specific about that. It is important to follow those and not change them at that level. Then, when the notes and rhythms are correctly done, the performers can make their own interpretive decisions with things like registration, rubato, agogic, etc. But all of that should not interfere anymore with this first step; notes and rhythms have to be kept."

We closed the conversation with Latry musing about the importance of competitions. I found that he had some surprising comments:

"I’m not a great fan of competitions. Usually I refuse to adjudicate a competition. The difference this time was that it featured the music of Messiaen, for which I have a deep affection. Who am I to judge someone? Why would my judgment be better than someone else’s? How can I say that one player is better in music than another one? Unfortunately that is the only way for young musicians to become known.

"I think we need new ways for young musicians to be known. What can we do to create a venue for them? There are certain young players that we know, and many that we don’t. In fact I would like to imagine some kind of meeting (not called a competition) where we can invite ten to sixteen young players, and we all listen to them. Then, after their performances, we could organize some masterclasses on the pieces they played, telling them what we liked, what we didn’t, what could be improved, etc. Towards the end I might say, ‘I really love what they do,’ and I might relay that name to someone who would not know of this young player.

"The pressure created in that kind of meeting, even without being a competition, however, is very important. When we create a performance situation, the pressure is part of the whole situation. It needs to be part of the player’s strategy to handle it. On various occasions, for example, when I premiered a new organ/orchestra piece with the Philadelphia Symphony, there was incredible pressure. I think it’s the same kind of thing. I haven’t judged before, but I think it’s the same way. Any competition, or a jury exam for a doctoral degree even in other fields than music would require the same thing. I think it is part of the skill to be able, in spite of the stress of the performance, to go to another dimension in those situations. Most people stay at the level of the composition, ‘playing the notes,’ but they really need to go further. The jury members are looking for something ‘more.’ I’m speaking about that other dimension needed for a complete, successful, and touching performance."

I was taken by these words from one of the world’s greatest players. The combination of high expectation and a calling to give new young organists a venue to be heard impressed me. The combined need for heeding the composer’s intentions and adding one’s own expressiveness and interpretation calls for the highest level of musicianship. The fact that no first prize was awarded was evidence to me of the need for all of us who teach young organists to encourage and support, while, at the same time, keep the bar high for the next generation.

Following her graduation from the University of Michigan in 1971, Franco-American organist Lynne Davis moved to France to study with Marie-Claire Alain, and then Jean Langlais and Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé. While there, she met her future husband, Pierre Firmin-Didot, and ended up staying thirty-five years. After receiving the Certificat d’Aptitude de Professeur d’Orgue from the French Republic, she served as organ professor at the Conservatory of Music in Clamart and at the National Regional Conservatory in Caen.

In 2006, she was appointed the Robert L. Town Distinguished Professor of Organ at Wichita State University, where she produces and performs in the Rie Bloomfield Organ Series: Distinguished Guest Artists and Wednesdays in Wiedemann. In 2012, she was awarded as a French citizen the distinction of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. After receiving the Excellence in Creativity Award from Wichita State University in 2011, she was honored with the medal of the city of Wichita from Mayor Carl Brewer in 2013. In 2016, she received the Burton Pell award from the Wichita Arts Council and in April 2021 was promoted to full professor at the university. Her unique living and vast working experience and her lineage of study in France makes her an authority in all French organ repertoire, culture, and aesthetics to which she has added work as a translator from French to English. She is represented in North America by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.

Lynne Davis Firmin-Didot

This past summer 2022, we witnessed the last musical moments of the great organ at Chartres Cathedral. At the end of August, scaffolding was built to take down the entire instrument—the pipes, the console, all the mechanical elements, and the Renaissance organ case—to leave space for a new instrument that will be built in three to four years. It will be an exceptional time for the organ case, which has never been taken down or restored in its long life. This is all great and wonderful news that will certainly enchant the organ world, both nationally and internationally. This new instrument, to be built by Bertrand Cattiaux and Olivier Chevron of Atelier Cattiaux as well as Manufacture d’orgues Mulheisen, will naturally prolong the life and great renown of the Chartres International Organ Competition, Grand Prix de Chartres, and its International Summer Organ Festival.

Centenary of his birth

We celebrated last year the centenary of the birth of Pierre Firmin-Didot. This tribute we address to his memory is doubly moving since the organ concerts of the summer of 2022 that make up the summer festival, founded by him in 1975, were the last to be heard on this instrument.

Pierre Firmin-Didot was born August 23, 1921, in Mesnil-sur-l’Estrée, Eure, France. On August 24, 1981, he married American organist Lynne Davis. Caroline Firmin-Didot was born April 25, 1983, to Pierre and Lynne. Pierre died January 5, 2001, and is buried in Escorpain, Eure, France.

Didot family dynasty

Pierre Firmin-Didot was a descendant of the famed Didot dynasty of printers and publishers founded by François Didot (1689–1757). The firm gained renown for illustrated editions of the classics as well as inexpensive editions of scholarly texts.

One of the family’s lasting legacies is the Didot family of fonts, designed by Firmin Didot (1764–1836), grandson of the printing house founder. He was the inventor of stereotypography, which refers to the metal printing plate created for the printing of pages, an invention that influences typography to this day. He was appointed by Napoleon as the director of the Imprimerie Impériale type foundry. The family were printers to the kings of France, printers of the Institut de France, and engraved the assignats, paper money used during the French Revolution. Firmin’s statue is found on the upper frieze of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris.

The most famous Didot typefaces were developed between 1784 and 1811. Firmin Didot cut the letters and cast them as type in Paris. His brother Pierre Didot (1760–1853) used the types in printing. The Didot types are characterized by extreme contrast in thick strokes and thin strokes, using hairline serifs, and by the vertical stress of the letters. Firmin was inspired by Baskerville’s typeface, and thirty years later Giambattista Bodoni started creating his own modern typeface. Viewing Baskerville, Didot, and then Bodoni alongside each other shows an important transition into modern typography.

Didot is described as neoclassical and evocative of the Age of Enlightenment. The Didot family was among the first to set up a printing press in newly independent Greece, and typefaces in the style of Didot have remained popular there ever since.

Visit of General de Gaulle

The present organ in Chartres Cathedral was built fifty years ago by Danion-Gonzalez, thanks to the initiative of Pierre Firmin-Didot. The ambition took root in his heart, his spirit, and through his determination. Affected at a very young age by the beauty of the cathedral and the harmony of the liturgy, he told the story of General Charles de Gaulle, then President of the Republic, who was to attend a big ceremony at the cathedral. But the organ was not playable, and an orchestra had to be called upon. The famous minister of culture at the time, André Malraux, told Pierre, “Dear friend, do something! It is a shame that the great organ is silent when there is the President of France who is visiting the cathedral.”

Initial effort to save the organ

For Pierre Firmin-Didot, something indeed had to be done; so in 1964 he started a campaign to save the great organ, raising a bit more than half of the funds necessary for its reconstruction, the other half being provided by the State. This was accomplished through the organization founded by Firmin-Didot, Association pour la Rénovation des Grandes Orgues de Chartres. June 5 and 6, 1971, witnessed the inauguration of the reconstructed great organ of the cathedral, in the presence of and presided over by the President of the Republic, Georges Pompidou, and Mrs. Pompidou. The same year saw the creation of the international organ competition, Grand Prix de Chartres. The association for the rebuilding of the organ was eventually renamed Association des Grandes Orgues de Chartres (AGOC).

Pierre Firmin-Didot surrounded himself always with the great masters of the organ world at that time including Pierre Cochereau, Gaston Litaize, and Norbert Dufourcq. Thus, with the encouragement of these luminaries, the Grand Prix de Chartres would lead to founding the summer festival with organ recitals every Sunday afternoon in 1975.

Chartres—symbol of excellence

Since then, throughout the world, Chartres has become a symbol of excellence in the organ profession. Having regained its voice, it was important for Pierre Firmin-Didot that outside of the liturgy, the great organ of the cathedral should be heard during cultural events destined to promote the international outreach of the cathedral. Chartres from then onwards attracted worldwide attention, alluring the greatest international talents and performers.

Endeavors and dedication

These projects entailed an enormous amount of work, and Pierre Firmin-Didot dedicated all his time to this cause. All this precise organization was aimed at making those unique moments of the competition or a concert in the cathedral truly memorable and of the highest quality. Every Sunday during each summer between 1975 and 2000, Pierre Firmin-Didot welcomed the public to the concerts and presented the artists. One can still see his tall silhouette at the crossing of the transepts or in the central aisle where he sold programs and took the collection, as the admission was always free.

One remembers the Sundays of the final rounds of the competitions: the excitement of the audience when the finalists played, the distinguished international jury members busily taking notes, the presence of a great part of the diplomatic corps in function in France (often the embassies of the countries from which the candidates came, sometimes even sponsoring them), the long rug running the whole length of the central aisle, the tingling excitement of the listeners when the Grand Prix was announced, the place reserved in the choir stalls for the press as they transmitted the fresh news of the competition results directly from the cathedral. The scheduling of this day was always done with the utmost precision, so that everything took place like clockwork.

Dedication and devotion

Pierre Firmin-Didot afforded us many precious moments of shared listening. There were countless times where beauty touched us profoundly, because it was present on all levels: the purity of the architectural lines in the cathedral that uplift and soothe us, the very stones resounding and reflecting the harmonics of the sounds of the pipes, and then the combination of the alliance of light and music in this monument that generates such a holy atmosphere.

Thus during his whole life, he never stopped devoting himself to the distinguished cathedral basilica of Chartres. Driven by this global vision of the universe of Chartres, he also created the Centre International du Vitrail (International Center for Stained Glass) in 1980. This center was inaugurated during a concert in the cathedral of Hector Berlioz’s Requiem, with Colin Davis, director, the orchestra and choir of Radio France, the choir of the Paris Opera, and the brass of the Garde Républicaine, in the presence of and presided over by the President of the Republic, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, and his wife. Firmin-Didot also created the association Chartres, Sanctuaire du Monde in 1992. Both associations are large-scale and ongoing, in complete service to Chartres and its cathedral.

Pierre Firmin-Didot and Lynne Davis’s charitable work was not limited to Chartres. In 1990, the two worked to form an exhibition administered by the Ville de Paris at the Mairie du 6^e, in addition to recordings produced by the Erato label of twenty of Paris’s organs (Prix du Président de la République). Erato would release Les Orgues de Paris de Couperin à Messiaen, a three-CD set, in 1992. Performers included Lynne Davis Firmin-Didot, Marie-Claire Alain, Pierre Cochereau, Olivier Messiaen, Daniel Roth, André Isoir, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, and others.

A pioneer

Pierre Firmin-Didot was a pioneer; he brought a modern focus and a new vision to cultural patrimony. Whereas in his day the word patrimony was still considered to be a term reserved for use by notary publics and lawyers regarding one’s estate, he knew that it would become the crusade of our time, that it would embody the question of cultural identity and be transformed into a national cause today, which would embrace the safeguarding and conservation of historical buildings and works of art.

Trust in those around him

Pierre Firmin-Didot always put his trust in the persons engaged in working on and serving this cause. He had a particular talent and pleasure in bringing together such loyal volunteers and esteemed experts in a manifestation of the great French tradition of distinction and friendly spirit. He was constantly striving to promote this cause, touching many lives along the way, so that the universe of Chartres would illuminate those of goodwill on the road to a true and pure light.

Final tribute

Pierre Firmin-Didot died in 2001, the twentieth year of our marriage, and all along the road traveled together, he gave me the opportunity—for an American arriving in France from Michigan just over fifty years ago in September 1971—to see so closely into the marvelous world of the French organ and society and to perceive that special and glorious light that comes so particularly from Chartres.

It is thus that I have wanted to pay tribute to my husband, Pierre Firmin-Didot, a man of duty and honor, with a great heart, to whom the organ world owes a special debt of gratitude for the prestige and perseverance he showed and for the legacy he left to future generations. Noblesse et générosité.

One can still hear him saying, “Chartres, c’est vous!”

The Great Organ at Chartres Cathedral

As early as 1353, the Cathedral of Our Lady in Chartres housed an organ, and Jehan de Châteaudun served as one of the cathedral’s organists. The instrument was installed on a wooden balcony in the second bay along the south wall that is still there today. In 1475, Gombault Rogerie, a novice in the order of Dominicans, was engaged to build an instrument that played up to fifty pipes per note in the treble register in an enlarged case that featured two tall flat side towers separate from the central façade.

Robert Le Filleul rebuilt the organ on its existing chassis in 1542. He caused the case to be richly decorated with numerous scrolls, masks, foliage, and corbels on the large towers, and crowned this filigree with lamps, the work of local craftspeople.

Though the pipework experienced significant reworking over centuries, the size of the organ case remained the same, with the exception of the addition of the Positif division, which was moved further forward in the mid-nineteenth century. In the early part of that century, there was discussion about moving the organ to the rear of the nave. A fire in the cathedral in 1836 rendered the instrument unplayable. In 1846 it was rebuilt and modified from a four-manual to a three-manual organ, and the casework was repainted a dark color. Further projects occurred in 1846, 1850, 1868, and 1881.

The organ was yet again altered in 1911, and by the 1960s it was in very poor condition. In 1964, Pierre Firmin-Didot commenced his work that culminated with the inauguration of a new instrument in 1971, built in the neoclassical style by the firm Danion-Gonzalez. The instrument was modified from three manuals, thirty-six stops to four manuals, sixty-seven stops, and an electro-pneumatic action was fitted.

GRAND-ORGUE (Manual I)

16′ Montre

16′ Bourdon

8′ Montre

8′ Flûte

8′ Bourdon

4′ Prestant

4′ Flûte

2′ Doublette

Grosse Fourniture II

Fourniture III

Cymbale IV

Cornet V (fr tenor G)

16′ Bombarde

8′ Trompette

4′ Clairon

POSITIF (Manual II)

8′ Montre

8′ Flûte

8′ Bourdon

4′ Prestant

4′ Flûte

2-2⁄3′ Nasard

2′ Doublette

1-3⁄5′ Tierce

1-1⁄3′ Larigot

Plein-jeu IV

Cymbale III

Cornet V (fr middle C)

8′ Trompette

8′ Cromorne

4′ Clairon

RÉCIT (Manual III)

8′ Principal

8′ Cor de nuit

8′ Gambe

8′ Voix céleste

4′ Flûte

4′ Viole

2′ Doublette

Sesquialtera II

Plein-jeu IV

Cymbale III

16′ Bombarde

8′ Trompette

8′ Basson-Hautbois

8′ Voix humaine

4′ Clairon

Tremblant

ECHO (Manual IV)

8′ Principal

8′ Bourdon

4′ Flûte

2-2⁄3′ Nasard

2′ Doublette

1-3⁄5′ Tierce

1′ Piccolo

Cymbal III

8′ Trompette

4′ Clairon

PÉDALE

32′ Principal

16′ Montre (Grand-Orgue)

16′ Soubasse

8′ Montre

8′ Bourdon

4′ Principal

4′ Flûte

2′ Flûte

Plein-jeu V

16′ Bombarde

8′ Trompette

8′ Basson

4′ Clairon

Personal remembrances of Pierre Firmin-Didot by Lynne Davis Firmin-Didot

I arrived in France in September 1971 to study with famed organist Marie-Claire Alain. As she had fallen ill, I took lessons with Jean Langlais at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. He was a master visionary and suggested three things that changed the course of my life, one of which was to encourage me during the spring of 1972 to make inquiries about the new international organ competition Grand Prix de Chartres, which had just been founded by Pierre Firmin-Didot. When I called, Pierre himself answered, and I met him before I competed. I didn’t get the prize, but I won the heart of the president!

He was passionate about the pomp and grandeur of the ceremonies at the cathedral and above all by the profound sounds of the organ. He had served as an altar boy under the archbishop, Monseigneur
Harscouët, and always felt a very special connection to the cathedral.

He played the organ in a rather natural kind of improvisatory style. One day, Pierre Cochereau, organist at Notre-Dame, told him, “You even know how to modulate!” Then having met me and throughout my own concerts, he familiarized himself with the subtleties of the organ repertoire. He only liked to listen to the organ, no other instrument.

Although he was very proud of the three centuries of his family’s printing and publishing dynasty, the printing business was not that of his soul; he needed a vision that was between heaven and earth. That is precisely where the organist is placed in the cathedral, and that is what certainly reinforced our own relationship. The cathedral was his great passion, which transcended everything his ancestors did. He became the light of Chartres.

His principal qualities embraced a profound courtesy and a welcoming attitude to all, regardless of their origins. He was kind and the epitome of a gentleman. He had a great sense of organization and managed all events from A to Z. It was he and our daughter Caroline who created the prototype of the great book of donors for the association Chartres, Sanctuaire du Monde, which is kept in the treasury of the cathedral.

Noblesse et générosité (noblesse and generosity) is how his nephew, Charles Firmin-Didot, described him during the ceremony where he was decorated with the Officer of Merit award in June 2000. It was a fitting epitaph.

Remembrances of Pierre Firmin-Didot by friends

Daniel Roth

April 8, 2021

Dear Lynne,

We owe a great debt of gratitude to Pierre Firmin-Didot for all he did for the magnificent Chartres Cathedral and for the creation of the international organ competition at Chartres. All his great work will be passed on to future generations.

He was a man of great kindness with a natural kind of authority, which always greatly impressed me. I preserve a great memory of him.

—Daniel Roth

Grand Prix de Chartres, 1971

Organist at l’Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris, France

George Baker

December 2, 2021

In this centennial year of the birth of Pierre Firmin-Didot, I have the pleasure and honor of writing a few recollections and words of gratitude.

Our first encounter occurred a few weeks after I arrived in Paris in August 1973, at Saint-Severin Church in Paris at an all-Messiaen concert played by organist Charles Benbow, 1972 Grand Prix de Chartres winner. Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod were there, and I was invited to the reception where I met Pierre Firmin-Didot, introduced by my friend, Lynne Davis. He was elegant, kind, charming, and very encouraging when I told him I intended to compete in the competition in 1974.

I’ll always be grateful to Pierre Firmin-Didot. For me, the Grand Prix de Chartres was a defining moment in my life and career. I made my first recording on the Chartres Cathedral organ for which we were awarded not one but two Grand Prix du Disque in 1975. A young, skinny, long-haired dude from Texas sure got lucky in France! All the endless hard work had finally paid off!

At the 2000 post-competition dinner, we were sad to learn of Pierre’s illness. He was not able to attend the competitions, and we were all very sad. I recall that many people at the dinner shared their souvenirs and love of Pierre.

Many years have passed since 1973 and my first meeting with Pierre Firmin-Didot, and twenty years have already passed since he left us in 2001. The time has not diminished my gratitude to and admiration for this unique and great man. Mon cher ami Pierre, we miss you and love you.

—George Baker, DMA, MD, MBA

Grand Prix de Chartres, 1974

Organist and composer

Adjunct associate professor of organ Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

Retired dermatologist

James Kibbie

April 29, 2021

When I won the Grand Prix d’Interprétation at the 1980 Chartres competition, a member of the jury told me, “This will open doors for you; it’s up to you to walk through them.” It was great advice, and I now regard the Chartres competition as the single most important event in my professional development. I had the pleasure of visiting with M. Pierre Firmin-Didot in his magnificent home several times, including when I later served on the competition jury. I also had the honor of playing the sortie for his wedding to my fellow University of Michigan alumna Lynne Davis. Together they extended the Chartres competition with further initiatives to advance French organ music. M. Firmin-Didot’s legacy still shapes the future of the organ in France and beyond. I’m enormously grateful to him for the doors he opened for me and so many others.

—James Kibbie

Grand Prix de Chartres, 1980

Professor and chair, organ department University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Christophe Mantoux

April 26, 2021

Twenty years ago, already, the premature death of Pierre Firmin-Didot was of great sadness in the organ world. There are many of us all over the world who owe much to him, even though he never promoted himself as such. Simplicity, modesty, selflessness, but also generosity, dynamism, imagination, perseverance: so many qualities brought together in one man to carry out a magnificent enterprise in service to art, the organ, and organists!

Presiding over the competition, Pierre Firmin-Didot was affable, courteous, caring, having conserved his capacity of wonderment, showing a tender and dreamer nature.

Dear Pierre, in this year of the centenary of your birth, we express to you our most profound recognition. You had the rare joy of seeing come to fruition the worldwide reputation of the competition (Grand Prix de Chartres) you created; your work, alive and well today, continues its magnificent vocation of emulation, in the service to excellence in art!

—Christophe Mantoux

Grand prix de Chartres, interprétation, 1984

Professeur d’orgue au Conservatoire régional et au Pôle supérieur de Paris

Organiste titulaire de l’Église Saint-Séverin à Paris

Membre de la Commission nationale des monuments historiques (section des orgues)

Martin Jean

September 1, 2021

Few of us can probably say we met someone who truly changed the world. I feel privileged to claim that I did so by making the acquaintance of Monsieur Pierre Firmin-Didot.

M. Firmin-Didot was a visionary, a leader, and a pioneer. He saw possibilities where others saw defeat, and he built bridges where once there were walls. Firmin-Didot in France is a name of renown that is known today such that a statue of the family patriarch stands in the façade of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris. Only a person of such a reputation and legacy could lead a campaign to build a magnificent organ in one of the great cathedrals of the world, to set out an annual festival around it, and to launch one of the most prestigious organ competitions we have.

In a few days, when it came time for us to meet him, we expected formality, distance, reserve. While we were clearly in the presence of someone truly special, dressed in a gorgeous suit of clothes, with perfect manners and comportment, we were all disarmed by how personable he was. Shaking each of us by the hand, sharing a personal greeting, looking us in the eye with warmth and welcome, I was immediately put at ease. I am convinced this helped me play better.

I stayed in touch casually with M. Firmin-Didot over the years and shared meals with Lynne Davis, his wife, and him on return visits. I can still hear his lyric tenor voice shout, “Cher Martin!,” when he saw me coming up the path. There was no reason that I could think of for him to be so kind and welcoming to me. No reason, except that this was his nature.

Leaders, true visionaries, give to the world, and they give equally to individuals. They set out a view of something really glorious—in the case of Chartres and Pierre, music in a setting of utter holiness. But the ones who really “get it,” whose legacy long outlasts their lives, ensure that their grand picture of the world impacts the individual, the human being. This was certainly true for me.

This is my memory of the great Pierre Firmin-Didot. A man of honor, of courage, and of dreams who did what he did not to set up a legacy for himself, but to ensure that all our lives are changed forever.

Merci pour tout, Pierre Firmin-Didot!

—Martin Jean

Grand Prix de Chartres, 1986

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Eric Lebrun

April 7, 2021

Dear Lynne,

As a young organist, still studying at the Conservatory, I crossed his path during the Grand Prix de Chartres in 1990. I was touched immediately by the very grand elegance, the profound kindness of this sensitive and generous man. It is to him we owe the setting in motion of all the work of restoration, of the enhancement of this magnificent patrimony, which explodes today in front of our eyes.

Men who initiate, who are bold, who book a “ticket with no return” for a beautiful adventure, permit our world to breathe and to hope. With enormous gratitude . . . .

—Eric Lebrun

Organiste de l’Église Saint-Antoine-des-Quinze-Vingts, Paris

Professeur d’orgue au Conservatoire de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés

Professeur honoraire au Conservatoire Royal de Aarhus, Denmark

Susan Landale

April 2021

Pierre was a very special person. I remember his kindness, his sense of humor, and his devotion to Chartres. I also remember the beautiful dresses you wore, Lynne, for your recitals! We still miss him as the captain of the ship!

—Susan Landale

Organist of Cathédrale Saint-Louis-des-Invalides, Paris

E. Power Biggs Professor of Organ, Royal Academy of Music, London

Colette Morillon

April 2021

Pierre Firmin-Didot, an exceptional president!

Thanks to Pierre Firmin-Didot, the grand-orgue of the cathedral regained its voice in 1970, and it was important subsequently for him that it be honored by creating an organ competition of international magnitude to reflect the stature of the cathedral itself. It was important also that outside of the liturgy, the grand-orgue should be heard during cultural manifestations destined to further the universal outreach of the cathedral.

His goals were achieved:

—Reveal and promote young organ talents in France and elsewhere in the world. We always promoted the artist’s career, and to win the Grand Prix de Chartres became a dream of every organist. Past winners acknowledge that it helped them to begin an international career. Likewise, most of the recitalists of the summer festival attest to the privilege of being able to “make the stones of the cathedral sing.”

—Organize events of prestige in Chartres Cathedral, contributing thus to its universal cultural outreach. What was thrilling was the organization of quality events, the global dimension of the activities, the contacts with all the greatest organists, the discovery of young talents, and the partnerships with associations and festivals worldwide.

With Pierre Firmin-Didot, thanks to his numerous connections, which he mobilized for the benefit of Chartres, everything was always at the highest level. The Association des Grandes Orgues de Chartres also was present in Paris through other prestigious events they held to raise funds: two Soirées de bienfaisance (charity balls) at the residence of the U.S. ambassadeur to France in the presence of important personalities and with the support of the president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, who had also made a personal gift.

Pierre Firmin-Didot was really a president of exception!

—Colette Morillon

General secretary of the Association des Grandes Orgues de Chartres

Jean-François Lagier

April 2021

Firmin-Didot is the name of a French family who lived during three centuries in service to books and publishing. Pierre Firmin-Didot (1921–2001) belongs to the ninth generation of “Didot, printer and publisher.” Altar boy at Chartres Cathedral, he was impressed by the pomp of the great Roman liturgy. Through his faith and his fondness for splendid religious ceremonies was born his veneration for the universe of Chartres.

From a very young age, I experienced a sort of rapture when, as a young altar boy, guided by the luminous figure of Monseigneur Harscouët (archbishop), I served the Grand-Messe at Notre Dame of Chartres. The love of God certainly carried me, but it was magnified for the little one I was. Everything around me radiated beauty: the harmony of the liturgy, the chants, the ornaments, the perfume of the flowers and the incense, the magic light from the stained glass windows, which brought forth so many apparitions of familiar personages from Biblical history, and finally as if embracing and inflaming all of this, the powerful majesty of the organ, capable of bringing us the trembling of a Dies Irae summoning the blessed vision of the Lamb of God.

Pierre Firmin-Didot was a pioneer: he wore the modern “vision” of cultural heritage. When during his time “patrimony” was only a notary public term, he knew that it would become the crusade of our times, that it would incarnate the question of cultural identity, and that it would be transformed into a national cause, today, which embraces the preservation and conservation of art and historical structures, like the safeguarding of the natural environment and buildings.

He anticipated this movement in Chartres through all his actions, born of a mindset that wasn’t simply nostalgic of things past, a “folklorization” of cultural heritage, with a content that one would have stripped of all meaning: it is the living cathedral, which he saw as a beacon of Western Christianity, that which incarnates a worth of continuous value, the cathedral that Proust upheld, which affirmed that the religious vocation of the monument was the guarantee of its artistic beauty.

—Jean-François Lagier

President de Chartres, Sanctuaire du Monde

Directeur du Centre international du Vitrail

Trésorier de l’Association des Grandes Orgues de Chartres

Chartres cathedral website: chartrescathedral.net

Chartres competition website: orgues-chartres.org