The fraternity between Cluny sites can also take the form of organist visits. Between Payerne and Souvigny, two major sites in the network of priories dependent on the Abbey of Cluny, similarities have existed throughout history:
In the 10th century, Abbots Maïeul and Odilon, dear to the heart of Empress Adélaïde, daughter of Queen Berthe, encouraged the development of the Payerne monastery by the reigning Burgundian family.The two great abbots are buried in the prioral church of Sts-Pierre-et-Paul de Souvigny…
In the 18th century, the great organ builder François-Henri Clicquot built an organ in Souvigny that remains one of the finest examples of French classical organ building, an exceptional instrument.The year following this construction, 1784 – although there is probably no connection between these two events – the Payerne town council decided to build an organ for the town’s St Mary’s parish church, and entrusted the task to the organ builder Melchior Grob: this is the instrument that is still there, restored by the German organ builder Jürgen Ahrend in 1993.
In the twentieth century, the organist Jean Jaquenod, on a visit to Souvigny, was so impressed by the quality of the instrument that, when he commissioned the first of the instruments he had made from Jürgen Ahrend, he asked him to take inspiration from it.This French-style organ, created for the Church of Reconciliation in Taizé, spent 18 years in the Abbey Church of Payerne before being installed in the Primatiale St-Jean in Lyon.
This long history will resonate in symphony with Jean-Luc Perrot’s contemporary organ programme.
Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier (1734-1794)
Hymn Pange Lingua (extract from Journal d’orgue n° 7)
- Plain-Chant (Grave)
- Fuga (Allegro ma non troppo)
- Oboe recitative (Affectuoso)
- Petit plein Jeu pour l’Amen
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809)
Three Preludes and Fugues:
- C major
- D minor
- G Major
Justin Heinrich Knecht (1752-1817)
Grande sonate for organ
Georg Benda (1722-1795)
Sonata in G minor:
- Moderato
- Andante
- Tempo di Minuetto
Souvigny organ book
- Communion or Elevation
- Offertory
- Hymn strophe
Michel Corrette (1707-1795)
Concerto No 1 in G major
- Allegro
- Gavottes 1 and 2
- Allegro
Free admission, collection
Duration: 1 hour
Concert organised by the Association for the Development of the Ahrend Organs in Payerne
