Messiaen's Organ Music

[Mandryka]

I think there are some organists here, so I thought it might be fun to start a thread.

All my musical attention has been focussed on Livre du Saint Sacrement recently. Difficult but somehow fascinating music. I've bought Jon Gillock's book and I'm really starting to enjoy Loïc Mallié's recording.

https://www.jongillock.com/bookrecordings.htm

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/91/000170519.pdf

[Pulcinella]

I don't remember much if any being played in Liverpool's Anglican cathedral as I was growing up thereabouts (perhaps in one of the Bank Holiday recitals?) so I think my first exposure was with Jeanne Demessieux's Transports de joie on the Metropolitan cathedral's organ, well transferred from LP to CD in this compilation:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8056049--organ-music-from-the-two-cathedrals-in-liverpool

Subsequently, there were post-service explosions on the new Rieger organ at Christ Church, Oxford, in Simon Preston's time there, which shocked the rather staid congregation there. His recording of La nativité (Westminster Abbey) was an early purchase. It now is also on CD, in this collection (previously coupled with La transfiguration, still available):

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8388474--messiaen-organ-works

[smittims]

I supose the 'classic' recordings are the composer's own. They were reissued many years ago in EMI's 'The Composer in Person' series of CDs. Recorded in 1956 in the Eglise de las Sainte-Trinite, some of it is very slow indeed, notably the Banquet Celeste, while the last chord of l'Ascension takes nearly a minute.

[Mandryka]

I supose the 'classic' recordings are the composer's own. They were reissued many years ago in EMI's 'The Composer in Person' series of CDs. Recorded in 1956 in the Eglise de las Sainte-Trinite, some of it is very slow indeed, notably the Banquet Celeste, while the last chord of l'Ascension takes nearly a minute.

The tempos of the pieces in Livre du Saint Sacrement can vary tremendously from one performance to another. Presumably he left no indications in the score.

[oliver sudden]

As so often happens, I don’t have time to do a proper post so I haven’t posted anything at all, which is silly. So a little post it will have to be.

I had a big Messiaen organ phase a few years ago. I did the Paris marathon in 2019 and had a bit of a wander afterwards so my legs wouldn’t sieze up too badly. My path took me towards and around Notre Dame. I caught the train home to Köln the next day and if you check your 2019 calendar you will find that that was quite a day in the history of Notre Dame so I found myself listening to a lot of Olivier Latry’s fine Messiaen box once I was back in front of my speakers. Especially Apparition de l’Église éternelle.

I decided to investigate some other performances after that. Louis Thiry’s box is spectacular and I commend Combat de la mort et de la vie to the assembled company. Gillian Weir’s early recordings on the RFH organ (there’s a double CD on Eloquence) are also very effective, no less so for having a relatively un-French sound and a very un-churchy acoustic, and indeed a relatively independent performance practice (comparing her Combat with Thiry’s is fascinating).

I have always had a bit of a problem with the Messiaen plays Messiaen box since the Trinité organ was in such an awful state when it was made!