Messiaen: Offrande au Saint Sacrement

The first time that any of the organ music of one of the 20th centuries most important composers, Olivier Messiaen, has been available on an SACD hybrid.

Although Olivier Messiaen holds the position as the most performed organ composer of the twentieth century, there are still several early works like “Prélude”, and “Offrande au Saint Sacrement” included here on this debut by Norwegian Inger-Lise Ulsrud that are seldom recorded. Some of these pieces were not published until after the composer’s death at the beginning of the 21st century. For this reason, apart from his early masterpiece “Lascension” and “Le Banquet Celeste”, works like the “Diptyque” and “Apparition de l’Église éternelle” are relatively unknown. This is the first disc of Messiaen’s organ music to be released as an SACD hybrid. The featured organ is that of the church of St. Nikolai in Halmstad, Sweden. Inger-Lise Ulsrud graduated from the Norwegian Academy of Music and continued her improvisation studies under Professor Anders Bondeman in Stockholm. Since 1993 Inger-Lise Ulsrud has been teaching improvisation and organ literature at the Norwegian Academy of Music, and is now Associate Professor for organ.

The final volume in Delphian's survey of Messiaen's complete organ music takes in his earliest published works, in which - in the composer's own words - the 'abundance of technical means allows the heart to overflow freely'.The British Harrison in St George's Chapel,Windsor Castle speaks with a French accent in this music, and Timothy Byram-Wigfield's combination of virtuosic majesty and compelling loving faith has already captured the imagination of reviewers of Volume I.The booklet includes a 3000-word essay by acclaimed Messiaen biographer Nigel Simeone.

"… gives full weight to the music's uncompromising intensity" Gramophone

"convincing and delightful" Choir & Organ, Sep/Oct

“This CD features the first release of performances of short works by Messiaen, all of them rarities, except for Le merle noir. Messiaen wrote La morte du nombre for soprano, tenor, violin, and piano in 1929 while he was a student at the Paris Conservatory. It's a serene, gorgeous, sensuous piece that deserves to be more widely known. Offrande au Saint Sacrament, for organ, is undated, but probably written soon after La morte du nombre in a similar mood of quiet radiance. It's typical of the style of the composer's organ works of the early '30s -- harmonically and melodically rich, emotionally warm, and rhythmically irregular. Quatre Inédits for Ondes Martenot and piano sound like absolutely nothing else in the world…it's revelatory to hear it highlighted as it is here - the sounds of which it's capable and which the composer adroitly exploits are stunning. The album closes with Chant des Déportés, for chorus and orchestra, written in celebration of the liberation of prisoners from concentration camps in 1945. It's distinctly Messiaen, but at the same time rousingly patriotic - the choral parts are unison and relatively simple, probably intended for community choruses rather than professionals - and the effect is genuinely gripping. Any fan of the composer will want to hear these obscure but attractive pieces.”

Stephen Eddins, All Music Guide

Incorporating the fruits of the composer’s untiring research into the various aspects of tonality, bird-song, ancient Indian and Greek rhythms, and his life-long preoccupation with the philosophy and liturgy of the Catholic Church, the organ music by Olivier Messiaen forms a pillar in the music of the 20th century. Over some 50 years, Messiaen created a body of works for the great Cavaillé-Coll organ in the Church of La Trinité in Paris, where he was active throughout most of his life. All of these have been gathered in this boxed-set of Hans-Ola Ericsson’s highly acclaimed recordings, many originally released as single discs between 1989 and 1992.