Organ recital: Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard

Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 8:30 PM

Estimated Run Time: 1 hour

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris

A winner of several major international improvisation competitions, Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard explores the most daring combinations of the organ with other forms of artistic expression: dance, visual arts, film, and electronic music. As the titular organist at the Church of Saint-Eustache in Paris, he also performs on major international stages in Europe, the United States, and Japan.

Conceived as a vast sonic arch, the programme of this recital brings into dialogue works from the French, German and Russian traditions with the art of improvisation. As the heir to a tradition deeply rooted in Notre-Dame and the French organ school, improvisation is not merely an interlude here, but the very thread that binds the concert together.
An improvised Suite française will open the evening, evoking the great forms of the French classical repertoire. The programme will then continue with the monumental Finale of Brahms’s Symphony No. 4, unfolding its impressive passacaglia in which architectural rigor and dramatic power converge.
Three improvised intermezzi will punctuate the recital, serving as moments of reflection and as bridges towards the various musical worlds of the surrounding works: Franck’s Cantabile, evoking the birth of the great French Romantic organ and the legacy of Cavaillé-Coll; Debussy’s La Cathédrale engloutie, inspired by the Breton legend of the city of Ys rising from the sea; and finally excerpts from Stravinsky’s The Firebird, which form the dramatic climax of the concert.

Photo by ©Antoine Thiallier

Program

"Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard (*1982)
Improvisations

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Final, extract from Symphony n° 4 op. 98

César Franck (1822-1890)
Cantabile, extract from Trois pièces pour grand orgue FWV 36

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
La Cathédrale engloutie, extract from Préludes pour piano, (transcription by Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Infernal Dance of King Kashchei – Berceuse – Finale, extract from The Firebird (transcription by Pierre Pincemaille)"

Cast

Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard, grand organ