Louis Vierne Tantum ergo

Louis Vierne, who was from birth practically blind with cataracts, received his first piano instruction at the early age of six. His first moving encounter with the sound of a church organ also dates from this time. From October 1880 he studied with the blind piano teacher, Louis Specht, who taught at the Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Young Blind People) in Paris. When Vierne first heard César Franck (later his teacher at the Conservatoire for a short time) at the organ of Sainte-Clotilde, it was a profound experience for him: “I was left speechless and went into a kind of ecstasy.” Following the death of César Franck, it was Charles-Marie Widor who continued to further his development as an organist. In 1892 he appointed him as his assistant at the great Cavaillé-Coll organ in Saint-Sulpice. Although he was passed over several times when applying for positions as organist, in May 1900 he was unanimously elected by a prominent jury as organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, a position he held until the day he died. Travelling was a burden to him, but despite this in the 1920s he went on concert tours of Europe, Canada and the USA, where he was acclaimed as a composer and organist. He used these trips to collect contributions for the maintenance and rebuilding of his organ at Notre Dame. On 2 June 1937 Vierne presented an organ concert in Notre Dame together with Maurice Duruflé. As he was about to begin an improvisation he suffered a heart attack from which he died soon after. The funeral service was held in Notre Dame Cathedral on 5 June - his organ remained silent. // Complete Organ Works, see Carus 18.150 Personal details

Denis Rouger gained his initial musical experience as the son of a Parisian family of musicians and during his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he received first prizes in harmony, fugue and counterpoint.

He was a lecturer and choirmaster at the University of Paris-Sorbonne for 20 years and choirmaster at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral for 10 years. He is honorary conductor of the Parisian church La Madeleine. He also collaborates with numerous ensembles in Germany. He has been invited as a guest conductor by radio choirs, the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, the Baden-Württemberg State Youth Choir and the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Concerts have taken him to Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland (Lucerne Festival).

He gives master classes in Sweden, Bulgaria, France, Germany, as well as in Switzerland.

Denis Rouger has been Professor of Choral Conducting at the Stuttgart State University of Music and Performing Arts since 2011. The chamber choir he founded at the university in the fall of 2011 won first prize at the International Choir Competition in Mosbach (Germany) in 2014.

In addition to his work as a choirmaster, he composes and arranges French and German songs for choir. His arrangements on the CDs Kennst Du das Land ... and ... wo die Zitronen blühn (Carus) were well received by the press and radio. In collaboration with Carus-Verlag, he has edited the choir book Französische Chormusik, which received the German Music Edition Award “Best Edition” in 2019.

In 2016, Denis Rouger founded the figure humaine kammerchor (www.figurehumaine.de), with which he regularly gives concerts at renowned festivals.

Personal details

Personal details