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Donald Macleod explores Olivier Messiaen's period of fame

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 Dupré. Aged just twenty-two, he succeeded Charles Quef as titular organist at the Sainte-Trinité 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.

By the 1960s Olivier Messiaen had married his second wife, the pianist Yvonne Loriod. The couple were invited to tour Japan in 1962, where he was enthralled by the landscape and the birds whose songs he recorded. Messiaen was also amazed by the enthusiastic reception they received in Japan, where they were treated like celebrities and constantly filmed. He had now risen to a figure of national and international importance, and soon came a commission from André Malraux, the Minister of Culture under General de Gaulle. For this commission Messiaen composed his orchestral work Et exspecto ressurrectionem mortuorum, which was a memorial to the French dead of the two world wars. He was still very active as an organist at the Sainte-Trinité in Paris, and a few years later in 1969 Messiaen completed his Meditation on the mystery of the Holy Trinity for organ.

Préludes pour piano
Håkon Austbø, piano

Monodie
Gillian Weir, organ

Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum
Cleveland Orchestra
Pierre Boulez, conductor

Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité (Meditation VIII & IX)
Olivier Messiaen, organ

Producer Luke Whitlock.