On December 7, Notre-Dame reopened its doors after a catastrophic fire tore through it over five years ago. Over the past half-decade, more than 2,000 craftspeople, including architects, carpenters, and artisans, dedicated themselves to bringing the iconic structure back to its former glory. Upon its reopening, the iconic structure was commemorated by an inaugural ceremony featuring some of the world’s most prominent classical musicians, including virtuoso pianist Lang Lang, brothers Renaud Capuçon and Gautier Capuçon, and violinist Daniel Lozakovich. Adding to the historic moment, Notre-Dame’s longest-serving organist, Olivier Latry, returned to fill the cathedral with the sounds of its iconic Grand Organ.
With about 8,000 pipes, 109 stops, and a console with five keyboards and pedals, Notre-Dame’s Grand Organ is the largest in France. The instrument towers at three stories tall, and some of its oldest pipes date back to the 1400s. Though it sat perched by a hole in the roof where the cathedral’s spire collapsed, the organ miraculously sustained little damage during the 2019 fire.
“I’ll never forget the joy we felt when we discovered that the Grand Organ was intact,” Christian Lutz, a master organ builder recalled. “It was filled with lead dust, but it had not burned. It didn’t melt in the heat and the firemen had not inundated it with water—they knew what they were doing.”
The Grand Organ nevertheless underwent an intensive restoration process as it had to be cleaned, refurbished, and reinstalled before it could be played again. A team of 30 artisans meticulously dismantled the organ, removing lead remnants that fell into its pipes and the cracks between its keys. The organ was then subject to a comprehensive deep clean, decontaminating it of any other toxic lead soot.
Once reinstalled in Notre-Dame, the most complex phase of the organ’s restoration began: tuning it inside a noisy and highly specialized construction site. Every pipe had to be fine-tuned to complement its neighbors, and as Lutz explained, “You need absolute silence.” To make it work, the team of nocturnal artisans and Notre-Dame organists—including Latry—spent six months working through the night, once construction ended for the day.
“It wasn’t possible any other way,” Latry told CNN. “During the day it was impossible to do anything [with the noise].”
The musician, who began working as an organist at Notre-Dame 40 years ago, was also the last person to play the spectacular instrument, performing on it a mere day before the fire broke out on April 15, 2019. Since then, he has only had the chance to play the organ last month after scaffolding inside the cathedral was dismantled. He says that the sound was unchanged even after the fire, but it now reverberates for a full eight seconds.
“Because the stone is so clean, there is no dust,” Latry explains. “And we can hear a kind of big wave [of sound] going to the end of the church.”
During Notre-Dame’s grand reopening, Latry “awakened” the organ in an incredible 10-minute musical ritual. “This ‘wake up’ of the organ is something really incredible,” he admits. “Eight times the archbishop will call to the instrument. The first one, for example will be, ‘Organ, holy instrument get up! Awake!’” Latry then responds by improvising the notes, creating a unique dialogue between the archbishop and the organ and bringing the cathedral’s voice to life once more.
Scroll down to watch Notre-Dame’s opening ceremony, along with Latry’s organ performance.
Since a devastating fire tore through Notre-Dame in 2019, the cathedral’s Grand Organ was out of commission for over five years.
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Despite sustaining little damage, the iconic instrument underwent an intensive restoration process, including a six-month period of tuning it once it was reinstalled in Notre-Dame.
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The Grand Organ was finally played once again by Olivier Latry, the cathedral’s longest-serving organist, during Notre-Dame’s reopening ceremony on December 7, 2024.
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Watch and listen as Latry “awakens” the organ in an incredible 10-minute musical ritual.
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Sources: Notre Dame organ resonates at last, after ‘awakening’ for first time in five years; Notre Dame organist returns for the cathedral’s grand reopening; How Notre Dame’s famed Grand Organ regained its distinctive voice
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