LDV153.7

Where did you turn for more serious training? I started onmy own and that went on for a year or two. Thenmy parents made enquiries about the best course to follow. It was at that point that an organist called Noëlle Pierront, who was passing through Saint-Dizier, advised me to avoid the Paris Conservatoire, where according to her I was ‘bound to be a failure’. She strongly recommended the École César Franck, where the teachers were excellent. So I entered that establishment, which was private and fairly expensive. I know that my father, who was a railwayman, had great difficulty in paying for my tuition. Logically, the next step was the Paris Conservatoire, where my organ teacher was Madame Rolande Falcinelli. Then, after I’d left the Conservatoire, there were a few international competitions; all of this took place without a break, one thing after the other. When I arrived at the École César Franck, they sent me straight to see the director, Monsieur Guy de Lioncourt, who listened to me playing and said: ‘It’s not bad, but it isn’t very orthodox; I’ll put you in the intermediate class.’ When I got there, exactly the same thing happened. The teacher listened to me and said: ‘That won’t do: where have you come from and who did you work with?’ I replied, ‘Well, I worked by myself’. ‘Yes, well, I can hear that! You’re going down to the beginners’ class!’ So that’s what I did, but it was no bad thing for me, because I came across an extraordinary teacher, enormously gifted, called Geneviève de la Salle: it was exactly what I needed. She gave me a technical foundation I certainly wouldn’t have got from the other teacher, and I’m very grateful to her. 52 BACH_THE ORGANWORKS