Bernard Gavoty

Bernard Georges-Marie Gavoty (2 April 1908 – 24 October 1981) was a 20th-century French organist, musicologist, music critic and talk show host.

Biography
Bernard Gavoty was born in 1908 to Raymond Gavoty (a deputy of the Var department; 11 March 1866 - 20 January 1937 in Paris) and Geneviève Magimel (9 October 1875 in Paris - 17 October 1946 ibid.) in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

After being a pupil of Louis Vierne, Bernard Gavoty entered the Conservatoire de Paris where his classmates for the organ included Denise Launay, Michel Boulnois, Antoine Reboulot, Félicien Wolff and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald.

He held a special place there among the students of Marcel Dupré. Renowned as a brilliant speaker and refined writer, he gave numerous lectures, especially for the Jeunesses musicales de France, and was a noted music critic for Le Figaro under the pseudonym Clarendon, a reference to the principal character of Beaumarchais's Eugénie.

In 1942, he was appointed the titular organist of the grand organ of the Église Saint-Louis des Invalides which he in 1955 had rebuilt by the Beuchet-Debierre company in the neoclassical style. In the 1950s and 1960s, he frequently appeared on the single television channel to discuss classical music. In 1976, he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, succeeding Julien Cain in the free members section.

He was also an agricultural engineer, having graduated from the Institut national agronomique, and a wine grower in the côtes de Provence.

Personal life
In 1944, Bernard Gavoty married Victoire Vignon (1916-2003) with whom he had two daughters: Marie-Ange (born 1945) and Cécile (born 1949).

Gavoty passed away in the autumn of 1981 in the 7th arrondissement of Paris.

Discography

 * Camille Saint-Saëns - 3rd symphony, with organ (1975 - Paris, Égise Saint-Louis-des-Invalides - Orchestre National ORTF, conducted by Jean Martinon - EMI Group),
 * Louis Vierne : Marche triomphale - César Franck : Prélude, Fugue et Variation - Claude Balbastre : développement sur le Noël populaire « Joseph est bien marié » (Paris, Saint-Louis-des-Invalides) - Erato, dq 105, 1957. Cuivres, dir. Louis Frémaux. Organ: Marcel Dupré),
 * Prières à Saint-Louis-des-Invalides : Pierre de Bréville - Gabriel Fauré - Johann Sebastian Bach - César Franck (Paris, Saint-Louis-des-Invalides - Disque Ducretet, M.-R. Chauveau, soprano, 1958 (38),
 * L'orgue de Saint-Louis-des-Invalides décrit par Bernard Gavoty (Paris, Saint-Louis-des-Invalides - Le Chant du Monde (éditions musicales et label), c. 1960),
 * Johann Sebastian Bach : les pièces cataloguées BWV 617, 645, 653, 659, 680, 686, 727, 734, 582, 541 (Paris, Saint-Louis-des-Invalides - Le Chant du Monde, 1963).

Theatre

 * 1971: Dumas le magnifique by Alain Decaux, directed by Julien Bertheau, Théâtre du Palais Royal
 * 1975: Les Secrets de la Comédie humaine by Félicien Marceau, directed by Paul-Émile Deiber, Théâtre du Palais Royal