Orgue Symphonique

Orgue Symphonique at BASILIQUE DE FOURVIÈRE

At BASILIQUE DE FOURVIÈRE, we welcome audiences to experience Orgue Symphonique in a setting uniquely made for it. Our hilltop basilica, with its soaring vaults and generous reverberation, was conceived to let sustained sonorities bloom and grand climaxes rise like light through stained glass. From the first soft breath of the flute stops to the full-throated brilliance of reeds, our grand pipe organ casts orchestral colors across the nave, turning the basilica into a living resonance chamber. As hosts, we prepare the space with special care: sightlines that let you watch the performer’s astonishing choreography at the console, lighting that gently reveals the instrument’s architecture, and a listening journey that rewards both seasoned connoisseurs and first-time attendees. The spirit of Orgue Symphonique—its blend of poetry and power—finds an ideal home here, where every phrase can linger and every cadence can settle into silence with palpable depth. For this occasion, we invite listeners to arrive in a contemplative frame of mind, ready to be carried by the grandeur and intimacy that only a sacred acoustic like ours can provide.

The artist’s current season and the shape of the evening

Our guest organist returns to Lyon with a season rich in cathedrals, abbeys, and concert halls, shaping a personal vision of the French symphonic organ tradition for today’s audience. Recent projects have included curated cycles that spotlight the evolution from the lyric breadth of César Franck to the architectural sweep of Charles-Marie Widor and Louis Vierne, with digital concert releases and live recordings garnering enthusiastic attention. In masterclasses and residencies, the artist has been exploring how registration can translate orchestral thinking to the console—drawing on the palette of foundations, celestes, and fiery reeds to reveal inner voices with painterly clarity. That same curiosity informs Orgue Symphonique at BASILIQUE DE FOURVIÈRE, where the evening’s narrative emphasizes long-line phrasing, chiaroscuro contrasts, and the spacious rubato our nave rewards. In dialogue with the basilica’s acoustic, the artist favors pacing that lets harmony bloom, allowing listeners to follow the contrapuntal weave while savoring the glow of held chords. It is a season marked by breadth: reverence for the classic corpus, a keen ear for coloristic detail, and a willingness to place contemporary idioms alongside time-honored pages.

Within that spirit, audiences often recognize touchstones from the French symphonic repertoire—works whose very titles evoke the instrument’s grandeur and intimacy. Emblematic pages such as Symphonie pour orgue n°5 (with its celebrated Final), Symphonie gothique, or Carillon de Westminster exemplify the sound world that Orgue Symphonique brings so vividly to life: noble chorales, murmuring strings, volcanic crescendos, and tolling harmonies that shimmer high in the vaults. Many of today’s leading organists also converse with the present by placing pieces from composers like Thierry Escaich or Naji Hakim amid the classics, extending the lineage without breaking it; our basilica’s organ, with its flexible color and gravitas, answers that call beautifully. As hosts, we encourage listeners to explore different seating areas—forward pews for the visceral thrill of reed choruses, mid-nave for blended warmth, and the rear for a panoramic sonic image. From the first registrations of Orgue Symphonique to the last reverberant afterglow, BASILIQUE DE FOURVIÈRE becomes both concert hall and sanctuary, a space where time seems to expand and the city below recedes into quiet, leaving only the music’s architecture, breath, and flame.