Orgel des Auditorium Maurice Ravel, Concert-hall pipe organ in Lyon, France

The organ of the Auditorium Maurice-Ravel in Lyon is a concert organ with 82 stops on 121 ranks and 6,508 pipes, playable from a four-manual console. It stands in a niche that is narrower and deeper than the stage back at the Palais de Chaillot, and the instrument is fixed in place. Its blower sits in the basement because of limited height, and the first notes of the two surviving 32-foot stops use stopped or acoustic pipes.

Built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll for the 1878 Paris World's Fair, the organ stood in the Palais du Trocadéro and was inaugurated there by Alexandre Guilmant on 7 August 1878. Marcel Dupré had it restored in 1926-1927, then supervised its rebuilding by Victor and Fernand Gonzalez in the Palais de Chaillot, inaugurated on 10 March 1939. After the hall's 1972 closure, Mayor Louis Pradel obtained the instrument for Lyon, where Georges Danion reinstalled it and Pierre Cochereau inaugurated it on 27 November 1977.

The organ's nickname and repertoire tie it to French musical life: Alexandre Guilmant inaugurated it in 1878 and organised concerts there, and works by César Franck, Charles-Marie Widor, Marcel Dupré, Olivier Messiaen, Jehan Alain and Francis Poulenc were premiered on it. Thierry Escaich has been titular organist since 2006.

Visitors can experience this instrument during regular concerts held in the hall throughout the year. It helps to check ahead for performances to ensure you catch an organ recital when planning your visit.

The 1878 Trocadéro organ was built in a hurry: Cavaillé-Coll reused pipework made for the church of Notre-Dame-d'Auteuil. In Lyon the blower sits in the basement for lack of height, and the lowest notes of the two remaining 32-foot stops use stopped or acoustic pipes instead of full-length ones.