This album is the recording of the inaugural concert of the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique at the Maison Symphonique in Montreal. For grandeur, majesty and sheer tonal opulence, few symphonies can stand beside the Third Symphony of Saint-Saëns. The prominent contribution from the organ, the “King of Instruments,” provides an additional measure of imposing sonority to the work. The entire symphony is based on the principle of continual transformation of a “motto” theme. This theme makes its first full appearance in the restless series of short detached notes in the violins, following the slow, mysterious introduction. The attentive ear will pick out this theme in its rhythmic and coloristic metamorphoses throughout the symphony – at varying times flowing and lyrical, detached and fragmented, broad and noble, or agitated and restless. Olivier Latry is organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and organ professor at the Paris Conservatory. His appointment to France’s premier cathedral in 1985 at the age of 23 propelled him onto the international scene: he has appeared in more than 50 countries and on all five continents, as a recitalist or with orchestra.

When François Couperin published his Mass for the Convents in 1690, he had just turned 20, yet he had created the most exceptional collection of organ music to be written during the reign of Louis XIV. On the magnificent and historic Great Organ of the Royal Chapel of Versailles, over which Couperin presided from 1693 to 1730, the celebrated organist of Notre-Dame de Paris, Olivier Latry, performs a sumptuous version of this Organ Mass which, in a world premiere, is interlaced with captivating Chants sur le Livre, those sublime holy improvisations unique to French baroque music… for a moment of eternity.

Recorded in 2003, this program of rare organ works by Cesar Franck offers precise, poised playing, at all turns delightfully shaped (International Record Review) with magnificent sound from the Notre Dame organ.

Olivier Latry, titular organist of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, is one of the world’s most distinguished organists. He was born in 1962 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, and began his study of piano at age 7 and his study of the organ at age 12; he later attended the Academy of Music at St. Maur-des-Fossés, studying organ with Gaston Litaize. From 1981 until 1985 Olivier Latry was titular organist of Meaux Cathedral, and at age 23 he won a competition to become one of the three titular organists of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. From 1990 until 1995 he taught organ at the Academy of Music at St. Maur-des-Fossés, where he succeeded his teacher, Gaston Litaize. Since 1995 he has taught at the Paris Conservatory, where he has succeeded Michel Chapuis.

As well as being the promoter of the piano recital and creator of the symphonic poem, Franz Liszt was also a prodigious innovator in the organ repertory. Olivier Latry - resident organist on the great organ of Notre-Dame-de-Paris for more than thirty-five years - has recorded five of his pieces on the Rieger organ of the Philharmonie de Paris, including the three major published works for the instrument, fleshed out with transcriptions and arrangements.

In a release that marks the centenary of Camille Saint-Saëns’ death in December 1921, the Orchestre National de France, conducted by its music director Cristian Măcelaru, performs the composer’s five symphonies: Nos 1, 2 and 3 and two unnumbered works, the early Symphony in A major and the Symphony in F major, ‘Urbs Roma’. The works span some 35 years of the composer’s dazzling career – from around 1850, when he was 15, to 1886, the year that the Symphony No 3 was premiered.

For his first CD with La Dolce Volta, Olivier Latry has chosen a programme devoted to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. This recording, made on the massive Cavaillé-Coll organ of Notre-Dame de Paris, of which he is titular organist, raises a number of fascinating questions. “My approach highlights several paradoxes: the notion of performing these key works of Protestantism in one of the most emblematic centres of Catholicism, first of all, but also of playing them on an instrument that is, to say the least, far removed from the Baroque and Classical style of organ building.” - Olivier Latry