Instrumentation : 3.3.3.3 / 4.3.3.1 / T+2 // organ solo // strings
Composition : 2025
Commission : Orchestre des Pays de la Loire, Printemps des orgues and Beijing Organ festival
Duration : 18'30 mn
First performance : 11 may 2025, centre de Congrés in Angers, France. Orchestre des Pays de la Loire, dir. Philippe Forget, organ : Shen Yuan
Publisher : Gérard Billaudot (full score and orchestral parts for rent)
This concerto in four movements takes a unique approach to the organ. Forsaking all virtuosity, the instrument does not seek to compete with the orchestra; instead, it supports it, notably through the infinite sustain of its sounds. More importantly, it often stands alone, sovereign, like a grand resonating object.
The first movement opens with a brief motif that spreads throughout the orchestra, as if each musician were initiating a collective conversation. From this effervescence emerges a lively rhythmic theme, culminating in the triumphant and sudden entrance of the organ. Gradually, the music becomes more tormented and complex, yet both themes remain ever-present.
The second movement features a reduced ensemble: strings, organ, and a few woodwinds. The music, both poetic and mysterious, unfolds in a chiaroscuro of suspended harmonies and fleeting melodic motifs.
The third movement begins at a moderate tempo, reintroducing the rhythmic theme of the first movement, now imbued with the character of an ancient melody. The organ appears alone and develops a passacaglia. As a ceremonial instrument, it establishes a sonic ritual that expands into a vast, tragic, and harrowing passacaglia, where the orchestra, carried away by this relentless tension, exhausts itself in a surge of power.
The fourth movement breaks this tragic energy with the organ’s resounding return. This brief finale alternates between the two themes before culminating in a final build-up of tension, where organ and orchestra merge in a liberating explosion of sound.