Concerts at the Gesu church

DÉJEUNERS D'ORGUE - 2nd edition

 Toulouse les Orgues organises new events in springtime  : the Déjeuners d'orgue (lunchtime concerts) and organ discovery routes in Toulouse.

The Déjeuners d'Orgue take place around the Cavaillé-Coll organ in the Gesu church.
On Thursdays of May and June, meet us at there for 30 minutes concerts followed by a friendly aperitive, sampling regional food.

Discover the programme of  the Déjeuners d'Orgue 2009 :

Thursday, May, 7th      Organ and Vocal Ensemble

Marylin REVEL, mezzo-soprano
Ensemble Vocal, Mark OPSTAD, direction
Adám KECSKÉS (Hongrie), organ

Thursday, May, 14th     Organ and  soprano

Annelyse ARAGOU, soprano and organ
Dominique BAECHLER, organ

Thursday, May, 28th       Improvisations

Juan DE LA RUBIA ROMERO, organ

Thursday, June, 4th   Organ and horns

Gilles RAMBACH, horn
Maïko KATO, organ

In partnership with the  Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse & the Centre d’Études Supérieures de Musique et de Danse de Toulouse.

Price: 8 euros

Information / Bookings : infos@toulouse-les-orgues.org + 33 (0) 5 61 33 76 80
Église du Gesu - 22 bis rue des Fleurs - 31000 Toulouse
(between the Place du Salin & the Ozenne street)
Underground : Carmes or Palais de Justice

When the Jesuits created a Province with a base in Toulouse in 1852, they wanted to demonstrate their importance. After settling into the Maison de l’Inquisition they started to purchase extensive land in 1853 and commissioned the architect Henry Bach (1815-1899) to build the Gesu church, which meant demolishing the old Sénéchaussée and a stretch of the city wall. In his designs, Henry Bach favoured the art of the 13th Century, but interpreted it so freely that the building stands stylistically somewhere between Northern Gothic and Southern sunlight. The result seems to be a compromise between the southern style of the single nave with chapels between the buttresses and a more northern overall shape.

The interior is extremely attractive with tall, slim columns, flowering into extraordinary leaf-motif capitals. The excellent painted decorations are the work of the architect’s Jesuit brother Auguste Bach (1819-1890) and are in the spirit of the stained glass created by the Toulouse craftsman Louis-Victor Gesta (1828-1894) from sketches by the painter Bernard Bénézet (1835-1897) also from Toulouse. All these factors give the church an exceptional feeling of cohesion and unity.

The organ of the Gesu church was constructed in 1864 by the famous organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. It was listed as a historic monument in 1977.
After reconstructing the great organ of Saint-Etienne Cathedral in 1852, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll built a new instrument in the Church of Gesu in 1864. It was inaugurated by Lefébure-Wély. The neo-Gothic case, with its two pipefaces and its three angled pipetowers, houses an organ with twenty-four stops over two manuals and a pedalboard. Its composition is characteristic of Cavaillé-Coll’s second period. This little-known instrument deserves wider fame as one of the great organ builder’s masterpieces.

In March 1880 the authorities decreed that the church should be closed but it nevertheless remained the property of the Jesuits. It was reopened to the public in 1920, and the Saint Stanislas School was established in the old noviciate.
The City of Toulouse acquired the church in 2000 and carried out some necessary conservation work before granting the keys to the Toulouse les Orgues association with the mission of bringing the site to life.
The Association programmed a new season of music in December 2005 with participation from the Antiphona Ensemble, the Ensemble Baroque de Toulouse and the Sacqueboutiers.