大象传媒

Donald Macleod explores Olivier Messiaen's student days in Paris

Olivier Messiaen was the single most important contributor to the organ repertoire in the twentieth century. He took up learning the organ whilst he was a student in Paris, and was fortunate to hear virtuoso organists around the city, including Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupr茅. Aged just twenty-two, he succeeded Charles Quef as titular organist at the Sainte-Trinit茅 in Paris. Messiaen remained in this post for over sixty years, composing many solo works for the organ that pushed the instrument to its very limits. He rose to become one of the leading composers in France, and also a worldwide musical celebrity. This week Donald Macleod focuses each day on one specific organ work Messiaen composed, whilst exploring the period in which it was written along with those other instrumental works from the same time.

Olivier Messiaen didn't come from a musical background. He taught himself the piano and at the age of eleven started attending classes at the Paris Conservatoire. Amongst his earliest works are his Preludes for solo piano, composed in the aftermath of his mother's death. By 1930 Messiaen had won the conservatoire's First Prize for composition. In that same year he composed his work for solo organ, Diptyque, which he described as an essay on earthly life and eternal happiness in two parts. Messiaen's faith would always be a key part of his life, and integral to his music. In that same year, 1930, he composed a cantata about transcendence, La mort du nombre, exploring the relationship between human time and eternal time, between music and silence.

Offrande au Saint-Sacrement
Olivier Latry, organ

A Reflection in the Wind (Prelude No 8)
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Diptyque
Hans-Ola Ericsson, organ

Les Offrandes oubli茅es
Orchestre National de Lyon
Jun M盲rkl, conductor

La Mort du nombre
Ja毛l Azzaretti, soprano
James Oxley, tenor
Christophe Poiget, violin
Alice Ader, piano

Producer Luke Whitlock.