Olivier Vernet studied organ with Gaston Litaize at the Conservatoire National de Région in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, where he earned his concert diploma with honors. At the Conservatoire National de Région in Rueil Malmaison, he studied with Marie-Claire Alain, and continued his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Michel Chapuis. For 15 years Vernet played the organ at L'église Saint-Louis in Vichy, then in 2006 was named organist of the Cathedral of Monaco.

Olivier Vernet was born in Vichy , France . His early passion for the organ leads him to become a student of Gaston Litaize at the National Regional Conservatory in St Maur des Fossés where he won 5 Gold Medals and the Concert Diploma with honors.

These are the only concertos that Haydn wrote for himself to play: by his own admission ‘no great wizard’ on any instrument, nonetheless these agreeably tuneful early works show how Haydn’s nascent style was gaining shape and symphonic aspiration beyond the simple charm of Mozart’s superficially similar Church sonatas.

César Franck’s studies in Liège concentrated mostly on musical training (musical theory, harmony and counterpoint), restricting his instrumental study to the piano alone. However, when he entered the Paris Conservatoire he broadened his horizons to study the organ. While studying in François Benoist’s class, he did not develop a very self-confident technique (furthermore, the organ pedalboard was limited to twenty pedals and did not allow for the performance of the classic repertoire). However, to his great benefit, he forged a complete career as an improviser; a field in which he excelled until his final years. This course began in 1819 and was intended to train liturgical organists. Above all, it focused on the treatment of plainsong, fugue and freeform themes, and it was not before 1852 that performance of a written piece was required. Against this background, the young musician only learned about performance in a very self-taught way. So, in 1872, when he himself was teaching at the Conservatoire, his approach to Bach did not concern itself with style or technique, reducing his aspirations to a performance which Vierne himself called rather rudimentary, being, “in time and without mistakes.”

A l'occasion du tricentenaire de la naissance de C.P.E. Bach, Olivier Vernet a enregistré l'intégrale de son oeuvre pour orgue qui est complétée par la réédition des deux Concertos pour orgue et orchestre qu'il avait gravé en 1998 avec l'Orchestre d'Auvergne placé sous la direction d'Arie Van Beck et salués alors par 5 Diapasons. La plus jeune soeur de Frédéric II, la princesse Anna Amalia de Prusse (1723-1787) possédait une vaste collection de compositions de C.P.E. Bach suggérant ainsi que ces oeuvres étaient régulièrement jouées à la cour d'Anna Amalia.

Michel Corrette was a French organist and composer with a long and prolific career. The two works here were composed 47 years apart, and the earlier Nouveau Livre de Noëls is not even an especially early work of this little-known composer. Despite the time difference, they don't differ sharply in style. The Messe pour le temps de Noël, composed in 1788, shows few traces of Classical-period opera or even of the late Baroque Italian vocal style, even though Corrette wrote a pedagogical work instructing his readers in the fine points of Italian music. The French style was simply extraordinarily persistent.