An artistic itinerary :
One cannot emerge quite the same after fourteen years of collaboration with the French composer Olivier Messiaen . Prior to that period, I had followed a fairly classic itinerary. First I've started to receive a strict education in my familly, descendant of the Tudor and Stuart families. Studies at the catholic collège de Juilly (founded by the king of France Henri IV) with the Oratorians allowed me very early access to the organ, since a small instrument was installed in the school chapel loft. My meeting with Jacques Picaud some years later was decisive: it is to him that I owe all I know, both concerning the organ as an instrument and the people who gravitate around it.
Jacques Picaud was the head of the Paris branch of the BEUCHET-DEBIERRE Company, which accomplished most of the successful huge restorations of most of the great French instruments: at the Cathedrals of Angers, Angoulême, Versailles, le Mans, Nantes then in Paris: Ste- Clotilde , Ste- Trinité , St-Marcel, St-Etienne du Mont, St-Louis des Invalides . Also St- Sulpice and Notre-Dame in the years 1920-1930, and St-Eustache from 1973 to 1977 just before the disaster, etc ...
working on the traction at saint-Sulpice (1984)
My very first assignment with Jacques Picaud (I was 17 years old) was to help him at St-Eustache in 1976 some months before he stops the instrument on December 1977, then to restore the organ of the St-Jean- Baptiste de Belleville Church. In 1978, came the major task of restoring the organ of St-Louis des Invalides for Pierre Gazin : adding chamades , making some repairs, changing all the leather parts, etc. It was the year I lost my father and Jacques Picaud gave me a lot of support. June 1981, Jacques Picaud, François Sebire and me, removed the Nadia Boulanger private organ who died on october 1979. Her funerals were at Trinity Church in Paris and Messiaen did not want to play for, and said "I do not want to play for the funeral of this person who has composed a really bad music, totaly uninteresting".
In 1979-1980 came the restoration of the Trinité organ for Olivier Messiaen . This work, among other things, involved repairing all the electropneumatic action. A short time later, we repaired the great primary reservoirs of St- Sulpice , followed by the restoration of its magnificent choir organ. What a time! Next, we completely revised the St-Marcel organ, one of Beuchet-Debierre's last realisations, a 3 manuals organ with 53 stops.
Then an exceptional intervention: the Besnardière festival, which houses a fantastic instrument built by Detlef Kleuker according to Jean Guillou's tonal plans. I was marked for life by the style of this organ. Its entire sound palette was different from what I had known until then. During the same period, we went regularly to Rouen for maintenance of the St- Ouen Abbey organ. Picaud dealt with this instrument for the memorable recordings by Pierre Labric , who was and remains one of the greatest French players. Without any doubt, Labric and Guillou are the two most brilliant disciples of Marcel Dupré .
Jacques Picaud soon died of cancer. After the funeral, I was astonished to be taken aside by Jean- Jacques Grunenwald and Olivier Messiaen . It was Grunenwald who spoke: "Dear Olivier, you are very young. My colleague and I wish to help you in our own way. We will entrust you with the care of the instruments of St- Sulpice and La Trinité , but we ask you to invest yourself completely in your work! We will let you have a month to think about it."
After a month, I responded positively, and I knew I had friends I could count on and I creat "Sebire & Glandaz" company. Together, we spent 11 years at Saint-Sulpice for the two organs maintenance until I was totaly against the unbelievable bad project of restoration.
A short time later, I dismantled the Trinité choir organ and installed it on the ground floor near the altar. Messiaen was worried, wondering if this modest instrument wasn't going to sound even better than his large gallery organ. He was right to ask himself the question because the instrument rings superbly in its new located; its sound rises into the nave, a real delight. The organ in the loft had been perched a bit too high.
Numerous projects kept me busy. An enormous job in 1986 was the dismantling and restoration of the St- Augustin organ. This project was only a partial success as I had too much confidence in the extra workers I took on. Later, taking down the St- Eustache organ was a very interesting experience and allowed Van den Heuvel to install the new instrument we hear there today. The previous conception had been a disaster, but I remember the dismantling work with pleasure. Jobs became irregular. On Grunenwald's recomendation , I was hired by the Abbey of St-Laurent, city of Eu to restore a relatively mediocre organ, but which was enclosed in a case dating from 1614. This abbey is a historic site, an important fief of the Orleans family. I did not keep the position due to some strange events between the priest, the woman choir director and the City, plus some concerns between the main organist with another organist of second plan.
My first important work was at Saint-Louis des Invalides Church with Beuchet-Debierre and Jacques Picaud for a complete restoration and install chamades. The same year we removed the Charles-Maris Widor personnal organ at Institut de France, quai Conti. After that we restored the Sainte-Trinité organ (Paris), then we have had an important work of cleaning at the Beuchet-Debierre organ of Saint-Marcel (Paris)
I found in my photos archives an interesting one I took of the Saint-Eustache organ case some days before I started to remove the complete instrument. On this picture we can see the chamades installed by Dunand. This was in 1986-1987 and we spent 4 months to remove everything, before Ven Den Heuvel installed the new instrument. This was a great but sad experience. And I am among the people who regret the old organ.
I took this picture in 1987 somedays before I removed the whole instrument
I spent over 20 years on the Louis Debierre organ at Saint-Lambert Church (Paris). This organ built in 1900 has an amazing sound, typically between the romantic and classical esthetic.
Jacques Picaud, François Sebire and me, often worked on the Cliquot-Cavaillé-Coll organ on the Saint-Louis Cathedral in Versailles. Beuchet-Debierre has installed some new chests for the high notes.
With the help of father James Prieux, I worked some years for the maintenance of the organ of the cathedral of Meaux, large instruments 77 stops - 5 manuals. Here I played a concert "voice & organ" with Macha Béranger and we had the luck to receive a great success. I played Vivaldi, Mahler, Wagner, Haendel, improvisations.
Each year Father James Prieux asked me to play for the AIDS day.
Troyes
With the help of my friend Michael Matthes, I worked on the large organ of the cathedral of Troyes. This is an amazing Cliquot instrument. I love its famous reeds
Since these last years, I'm starting to regret there is TOO MANY organs with electric transmission, that's means I regret our good old Barker transmissions. In France, most organists want their instruments played by electric transmission and this is totally ridiculous. With time, it appears too many problems. With mechanical action, it is much easier to fix all parts.
I spent many years to maintain important mechanical instruments and this was my best part of my life of organ technician.
Electronumatic... why not, but I hate the electronic system. The electronumatic works amost as an electric Barker machine and works for many long years (this is not the case of electronic which needs to change pieces after some years of using).
If I took example of the Beuchet-Debierre electronumatic system, we NEVER had any concern. No one problem !!!
Barker system
Barker system with magnet
Pedal chest
On this picture we can see the electronumatic action (still the best system) installed by beuchet-Debierre, tracting the Cavaillé-Coll mechanical parts still in place. We almost could name it as "electro-Barker"