The great organist Pierre Cochereau was acknowledged as one of the finest improvisers in the history of the instrument. He succeeded Léonce de Saint-Martin at Notre-Dame as organist in 1955 (Saint-Martin himself had succeeded Louis Vierne), arguably the most prestigious organ post in France and, with it, the most important of all Cavaillé-Coll’s instruments. This release marks the 20th anniversary of Cochereau’s death (he died suddenly at the age of 59).

The bulk of the film is of snappily edited single camera head-shot interviews with his son, daughter, former students, close friends and musicians. After two very short hours, I felt I knew the man, my admiration for him as a musician had increased tenfold, and I was left with a burning desire to take a turn in the tribune of Notre-Dame as soon as possible. It is an absorbing, revealing and by no means hagiographic portrait of general interest but essential viewing for organ buffs. The section where Cochereau is filmed teaching a student the art of improvisation is particularly valuable.

But there are a number of cavils. Repeatedly, archive extracts are cut off or faded out in favour of the newly filmed interviews. There is Cochereau in grainy black-and-white thrillingly thundering out the opening of the allegro of Vierne’s Second Symphony – not that any of the music in the film is identified anywhere – only to be cross-faded after 30 seconds.

Later, a detached interlocutor hands him a theme by Dupré on which to improvise: the same thing happens. What made Cochereau’s improvisations so impressive were their forms and structures; we need to hear them in their entirety.

The booklet, in French and English, is a transcript of the interviews, this despite the excellent English subtitles. Apart from Jean-Marc and Marie-Pierre Cochereau, we are left to guess the relevance of each person in Cochereau’s life.

Still, this is, as far as I am aware, the first film portrait of an organist’s career and life, and as such it is warmly welcome and highly recommended.