Notre-Dame Cathedral, the historic Paris landmark, reopened on 7 December with a spectacular concert attended by 1,500 international dignitaries.

Among the soloists were violinist Renaud and cellist Gautier Capuçon, who opened the ceremony with a performance of Handel’s Passacaglia. Gautier Capuçon said that he felt ​“very honoured to play at the reopening concert of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris’ and that it brought back ​’emotional memories of playing ​’Après un rêve’ by Gabriel Fauré on 16 April 2019 in front of the Cathedral the day after the fire”.

Violinist Daniel Lozakovich played the Aria from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No.3. ​’It’s an honour to be part of the reopening of the historic Notre-Dame Cathedral, a place of deep cultural and spiritual significance,’ said Lozakovich on social media. ​“Performing alongside Maestro Gustavo Dudamel and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in this sacred church is a moment I will always cherish.”

The great organ of 8,000 pipes – which astonishingly survived the fire but had taken many thousands of people-hours to clean and repair – was featured by Olivier Latry – the cathedral’s longest-serving organist and the last person to play the titanic instrument – in the warhorse finale of the Organ Symphony by Saint-Saëns. A particular highlight of the performance was a ​‘call and response dialogue’ between the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, and the organ. In this section of the performance, the Archbishop recited text in Latin, which invoked ​‘The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’ to revive the mighty Organ.