LDV49.1

43 LOUIS THIRY The organ of the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre in Geneva was built in 1965 by Metzler & Sons of Dietikon (Zurich). Its stop list is inspired by the neo- Baroque style while also incorporating some French-inspired stops (Cornet, Cromorne) and reeds from the Romantic period (1907). The case was designed by the Danish architect Paul Andersen. The organ is placed at the west rood of the cathedral with a reverberation time of around five seconds. All the pipework uses the ‘open-foot voicing’ technique. An unusual feature is that the fourth manual controls a division called Écho (Brustwerk), located above the manuals. This has a door that makes it possible to vary the volume by closing it or opening it partly or in full. With five distinct divisions, the instrument uses direct electric action for the manuals. Registration is facilitated by an electro-mechanical combination action that can memorise up to 72 combinations, thanks to 12 pistons each containing 6 combinations which can be called up independently for each manual. At the inauguration (and at the time of Louis Thiry’s recording), the organ had 67 stops. Since its renovation in 2003, it has had 68, without anymodification: the Sesquialtera of the Positif, which was on two ranks, was divided into Nasard and Tierce.