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54 BACH / ISOIR_TRANSCRIPTIONS
André was a subtle teacher, often patient but sometimes curt, with one of those
cut-and-dry comments of which he alone had the secret (e.g., “still, this sounds
a bit blitzkrieg aggressive to me!”). Despite his fascination for organ building and
his expertise in many musicological domains, the “spirit” very much prevailed
over the “letter”, through a genuine musical pragmatism that sometimes led
him to polish up the scores in his own particular way. The result was always very
convincingandnurturedour“Isoir-mania”! Inaddition, as Iworkedas a replacement
organist at Saint-Séverin at the time, our interpretations were the subject of
passionate discussions. We would pounce on the new releases (André was then
recording Bach’s complete organ works on vinyl). You had to choose between
Chapuis’s visionary frescoes, Chapelet’s volcanic productions, Isoir’s manicured
perfection and Boyer’s analytical clarity…What lessons they taught us, forcing us
to make our own choices! André was open to discussion, while constantly refining
our suggestions or ideas, so much so that the final result always sounded like Isoir.
What an imagination he had!
For the next two years he gave us improvisation courses on the beautiful Koenig
organ in the Auteuil Reformed Church, where François Espinasse and Liuwe
Tamminga joined us. There, the master’s command was a little disheartening.
As soon as you were “stuck” in the middle of a fugue exposition, he would sit
at the keyboard and suggest a couple of enlightened solutions, together with
a countersubject of course, to get us out of trouble! Those were some happy
moments.What good memories we shared!