Latry's great organ show

28 January 2012 witnessed a great show by French debutant at the DFP, Olivier Latry. Latry has a varied career as an organist so far and is the one of 4 organists (with the title titulaires des grandes orgues) at Notre Dame de Paris. He also holds a professorship at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Latry chose to open his DFP debut with one of the most famous solo organ pieces, JS Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV565. Here we heard the DFP Klais organ at its superb best. However, there was even more colour from the next piece. It was a surprise addition to the concert programme. It was Stokowski's arrangement of the very same piece also made famous by another medium - film - from the Walt Disney 1939 film, Fantasia. This was a surprise gift from maestro Flor and the MPO.

After this, Latry, Flor and the MPO played yet another premiere at the DFP - Liszt's Fantasy & Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" S 259 in Marcel Dupre's arrangement for organ and orchestra. I found the piece itself too prolix in nature and it failed to arrest one's longer-term musical interest.

The main interest lay in Saint Saens' Organ Symphony made famous by countless recordings in the past as well as the film "Babe". Both Flor and Latry had made recordings with a different organist and conductor respectively. The organist was Joachim Dalitz (with Flor) and the conductor Christoph Eschenbach (with Latry). Both recordings receive lightweight and fast performances on CD. However, in this performance, Flor, Latry and the MPO (with principals like Paul Philbert and Kevin Thompson shining out) must have given their all in a well-paced, weighty interpretation that must have ranked really highly amongst the many performances heard at DFP since 1997.