The French Judicial System
By The Hon. Justice James Douglas
Address for the Alliance Française de Brisbane 8 April 2005
Screening of “10e Chambre, instants d'audiences”.

Young Frenchman brings alive City Hall organ 
Courtesy of Courier Mail, THU 19 AUG 2004, Page 019
Vincent Dubois, organ recital
Brisbane City Hall, August 17
Reviewed by Patricia Kelly

THE music might have been by long-dead white male composers but it was played by the very alive and young white male French organist, Vincent Dubois, in a recital on the Brisbane City Hall organ.
He really brought that king of instruments to thundering life. Even the auditorium's floorboards vibrated when it reached full strength in this recital, an admirable joint Brisbane City Council and Alliance Francaise venture and the first in a series of three.
A sizeable audience came to see what made this 24-year-old musician the world champion at the 2002 Royal Bank Calgary International Organ Festival and Competition and the 2002 International Competition of Toulouse.
His program moved from a J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue in B Minor to 20th century French compositions. The Bach was forthright, detailed and with a firm bass but also was ponderous as if the instrument was too heavy for the task. Apparently that is the way this work is preferred by French organists so one cannot argue with that.
Franz Liszt's dramatic and powerful Prelude on the name BACH tested the Dubois armoury. His response was a breathtaking sweep through the rapid florid passages, dramatic chords, swift registration changes. The work plunged to dynamic extremes in a deep and wide emotional range, a spiritually inspired moment.
The French repertoire began with Cantabile by Cesar Franck, a quietly reflective work in which melodies developed by the left hand were accompanied by chords from the right. The final movement featured expertly-balanced dialogue between hands on the keys and feet on the pedals.
Refined thematic material in Maurice Durufle's Prelude and Fugue on the name of A.L.A.I.N., after his friend killed in World War II, was almost toccata-like in its fluttering opening before the developing fugal layers expanded into a blaze of organ sound colours.
With a French playfulness in the last two movements of Louis Vierne's Symphony No. 1 Dubois again shaped music with a wide spectrum of dynamic colours as the bustling broken chords of the allegro gave way to the lyrical middle section and a big, bold finale.
The art of improvisation was brilliantly displayed by Dubois as he wove a spell-binding development from two themes chosen ``on the spot'', one a Gregorian chant, the second the French national anthem.
The music soared with a sense of freedom, beautiful sounds and patterns created with virtuosic mastery of the form, another big feature of French organ performance.