Various CDs allow us to appreciate Edouard Commette’s talent as both a performer and a composer. But who was this French organist, whose name adorns a small, shaded square on the south side of Lyon’s Saint-Jean Cathedral?
Gilles Laprévote reminded us of this in an early issue of Orgues Nouvelles (2009).
Born in Lyon in 1883, he was appointed to Saint-Jean Cathedral in 1904 and remained in post for almost sixty years.
Although he aroused the enthusiastic admiration of his listeners, his friends were somewhat disconcerted by his reserve and excessive modesty. In 1929, his pupil and friend Pierre-Octave Ferroud wrote of him with tenderness and humour: ‘For nothing in the world would I have missed this Sunday mass at Saint-Jean.’ We have often deplored the fact that this marvellous game of tact and intelligence was reserved for the congregation of the old cathedral. We would ask Edouard Commette to perform elsewhere, to cross the barrier of his enclosure. This prospect alone was enough to frighten him. We really despaired of doing anything with him”.¹
Yet becoming an international organ star was indeed Edouard Commette’s destiny.
It was thanks to the 34 records (78 rpm) he recorded at Saint-Jean between 1928 and 1938 for the British firm Columbia that his talent was revealed to all music lovers. These records were sold everywhere, including Germany, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Japan, and their success was immediate and universal. A series of LPs recorded on the same instrument by Columbia between 1954 and 1961 further consolidated his international reputation. The critics were full of praise, and many anecdotes highlight the immense fame that the Primatiale St-Jean organist soon enjoyed. One such anecdote is recounted by André Combe, who describes the astonishment of the Lyonnais painter Pierre Thévenin when he heard the records of his compatriot on an old gramophone on a tiny island in Oceania².
In great demand, Commette agreed to give concerts in many cities in France and abroad. However, he refused to cross the Atlantic or embark on long tours away from his family, organ, pupils and friends. Undoubtedly a unique case, Edouard Commette is one of the most endearing personalities in the history of twentieth-century organ music.
1 Quoted in Les Amis d’Edouard Commette, booklet published under the title Edouard Commette, Composer, Organist of the Primatiale St-Jean and Citizen of Lyon, 1883–1967, Paris, 1969, p. 8.
2 André-F. Combe, ‘Edouard Commette, l’organiste des disques’, Lyon, 1954, p. 5.
