2007 - 12th festival
The Festival since 1996
This 12th edition will confirm the status of Toulouse as European capital of organ music. Now as ever, the organ lies at the heart of every style of music: Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, Contemporary, even electronic. Jan Willem Jansen, Artistic Director, combines the organ with vocals and other instruments, surrounds it with vocal ensembles or orchestras, makes it flirt with the cinema or dance and occasionally even asks it to perform alone!
The members of ECHO (European Cities of Historic Organs) have chosen Toulouse to host their 10th Annual Congress. The association is made up of 11 European cities, each with a rich organ heritage and an exceptional instrument, whose current titular organists will perform during the Festival.
2006 - 11th edition of the Festival
Just like Toulouse, the Festival takes nourishment from the past, sinking its roots into history and a rich heritage, while also looking to the future, keen to take wing with the help of modern technology. The organ can retain all its depth and spirituality, but also show a playful, festive, even sporty side.
This year’s performances traveled through both time and space - a repertoire from the 16th to the 21st Centuries with contributions from Canada - and covered a very wide range: the organ could be heard alone, with other instruments, or in combination with other arts, such as literature or the cinema.
2005 - 10th edition Festival 2005
No drums or trumpets to celebrate this anniversary, just more determination than ever to show that the world of organ music is very much alive and well. The king of instruments reigns over a multitude of activities, bringing to life the music of many different styles and periods, while also creating jobs and, just as important, enthusiasm. At his court he is entertained by the best instrumental and vocal performers, receives the visits of his kinsmen - the Hammond organ, the harmonium, the accordion - and welcomes the other arts - dance, cinema, photography. Over 10 years of festivals, Toulouse has won its place as organ capital.
2004 - Toulouse, the other ‘windy city’
Toulouse les Orgues this year chose an original theme, “Wind, Air and Breath”, inviting festival-goers to discover the organs of Toulouse and the Midi-Pyrénées Region.
The festival offered numerous rendezvous (cinema-concerts, regional visiting days, performances for young audiences) with music ranging from ancient to contemporary. Vocal and instrumental ensembles (Orchestre Baroque de Limoges, Orchestre du Capitole etc.) joined talented organists (Thierry Escaich, Pierre Pincemaille and others).
2003 - Loves, delights and organs
Toulouse les Orgues likes to share the specific pleasures of its city and its region.
The joy of making new musical discoveries or of rediscovering favourite repertoires, of visiting historic sites or, more secretly, the emotions that come from listening to the most famous or rarest instruments.
The festival invited visitors to come and share beautiful musical moments (dawn serenades, midday or evening concerts and masses, masterclasses, lectures, traditional regional days and events for a younger public).
2002 - The Harmony of the Spheres
The bonds which link the art of composition with astronomy go back several centuries and have been proved time after time. This was the central theme of the festival, inviting you to discover composers who drew their inspiration from the heavens and offered performances full of poetry and emotion.
2001 – From the Baltic to the Adriatic
The first week had a Danish flavour and gave us the opportunity to listen to romantic works, pay homage to the Baroque composer Buxtehude and encounter Bach and Handel who were so inspired by him. Then the second week took us to Italy where we were given a taste of its courtly and baroque music, discovered the atmosphere of Venice at festival time and met Verdi’s shadow.
2000
The festival chose to celebrate Bach, thus joining in a worldwide commemoration. Works performed ranged from the most secret symphonic poem taken from a little-known choral prelude, to the vast and flamboyant structures of his toccatas, without forgetting entertaining concertos and sonatas. Woven into the festival's programme was the entire organ opus of the instrument’s major composer.
1999
One hundred years after his death in 1899 the Festival celebrated Aristide Cavaillé-Coll as a genius, engineering visionary, enlightened mind, scientist and of course as the best known organ builder of his time. The public was able to enjoy the great symphonic repertoire performed in the tones of the period. Orchestras, choirs, soloists and ancient and modern music were all on the agenda.
1998
Iberian music was the theme. Samples from its repertoire were played by famous soloists and international ensembles, including the best orchestras from Toulouse. During the major Iberian evenings and the finals of the 7th International Xavier Darasse organ competition, the public had a chance to discover a few of the organ's close relatives (harpsichord, piano, vihuela and guitar).
The two highlights of this year were a weekend in Lisbon where seven concerts were organised as a prelude to the Festival and the installation in the heart of Toulouse, in the Jacobin Cloisters, of an 18th Century Spanish organ loaned by the great organist Michel Chapelet.
1997
The festival gave us the chance to discover some little-known chefs-d'oeuvres by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Bruhns and Schubert on the occasion of their various anniversaries. Music from our own time, performed by its best musicians, was represented by the great ‘organ and violin’ concert by Zsigmond and Aniko Szathmary, the Desenclos requiem and the first performance at Toulouse of a work by Jean-Louis Florentz.
1996
For the festival's first year, performers from ten countries were invited to emphasize Toulouse’s organ heritage on the occasion of the inauguration of the restored Cavaillé-Coll grand-orgue in the Saint-Sernin Basilica.
Version Française
