Montreal. The largest organ in Aude restored and inaugurated

The 20th century saw the paths of Notre-Dame de Paris and Montreal cross for the first time with the arrival of Pierre Cochereau, then titular organist of Notre-Dame de Paris, friend of the titular organ of Montreal, who gave there a first concert in 1962 and remained faithful to it until his death in 1984, performing every year in the village. The organ is classified as a historic monument and restoration work is being undertaken. The missing stops were then rebuilt, the instrument was enlarged and brought to four keyboards. In 1985, Philippe Lefebvre, titular organist and successor to Pierre Cochereau on the podium of Notre-Dame de Paris, took up the torch and, since that date, has given a concert there every year in a church filled with a faithful and proud audience. its heritage.

A total cost of 2 million euros

In 2017, following the collapse of part of the vault above the organ, the instrument was dismantled and underwent restoration. The town then carried out a double project: restoring the vault and the organ. A total cost of 2 million euros which successive municipalities were able to meet thanks to the help of subsidies from the State, the Department of Aude and the Occitanie Region. The work carried out by the companies Cattiaux and Chevron de Corrèze, Sarrelot de l’Hérault, made it possible to restore this organ to all its luster and authenticity with a renewal of its mechanical transmissions, the restitution of stops from the 18th and 19th centuries, but also with the contribution of contemporary technologies for storing and programming the 57 registers of the instrument, while the buffet and its sumptuous statues were restored by Alice Quoirin and Nicolas Beaudet. This work, supervised by the State expert for organs but also by Philippe Lefebvre, who has lived in Montreal for 10 years, represented 20,000 hours of work. The inauguration will result in three days of festivities on May 9, 10 and 12, with the best of French organists.