Standing ovation for Patrick Geel’s dynamic performance of the Bach Toccata & Fugue in D minor BWV 565
AUDITIONS DU MARCHÉ 2025-2026
Grand Orgue de Notre-Dame du Mont, Marseille
Standing ovations for Patrick Geel at the end of his performance of JS Bach’s D minor Toccata and Fugue, then again after Widor’s well-known Toccata from his Fifth organ symphony, the final piece in his programme at the Grand Orgue de Notre-Dame du Mont, Marseille; the organ was built (1847-49) by Pierre-Alexandre Ducroquet.
Patrick Geel’s programme showed the evolution of the toccata from an improvisation designed to show the sonic and musical capabilities of the instrument to an essential part of the organ repertoire, particularly for the French musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century.
These were dynamic performances by a musician who plays this historic instrument regularly. It’s direct mechanical action; Patrick Geel used static registrations for the first three pieces, including clever use of couplers. For the Bach and the Widor he put plenty of emotion into the familiar music. Dynamic in performance but quite traditional in registration over the two keyboards and the pedal board. The video screen showed in the Bach and the Widor how the written music allows for the musician and his assistant to pull and push stops. And of course he was playing the acoustic, either playing fast to override it or playing the pauses to include the reverb.
The Ducroquet instrument has many very bright stops, quite unlike the style of an English cathedral organ. A versatile set of 8’ and 16’ pedal stops, including a frumpy 8’ Trompette (trumpet) that Patrick Geel used just once, the call announcing the recapitulation in the Widor.
Patrick GEEL, Organiste de Saint Victor et de Notre Dame du Mont, Marseille
Toccata - Gaston BELIER (1863 - 1938)
Toccata prima- Johann SPETH (1664 - 1720)
Toccata per l’elevazione - Girolamo FRESCOBALDI (1583 - 1643)
Toccata et fugue in D minor - Johann-Sebastian BACH (1685 - 1750)
Toccata - Charles-Marie WIDOR (1844 - 1937)