Prices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Messiaen - Complete Organ Works Volume 3
Michael Bonaventure (Rieger Organ of St Giles' Cathedral Edinburgh) The seeds for Messiaen's final organ work were sown during an inspirational trip to Israel in 1984. Over the course of the next twelve months, Messiaen found improvisation leading him back to composition after the exhausting labours that had produced his mighty opera Saint François d'Assise.The Livre du Saint Sacrement became Messiaen's grand farewell to his own instrument, and Michael Bonaventure performs it from memory here on the Rieger organ at St Giles' Cathedral, the true acoustic of which preserves the clarity of Messiaen's lines. “The Livre du Saint Sacrement (1986) was Messiaen’s final great cycle for the organ, 18 movements lasting about two hours. The music is elemental, devout, ritualistic, eclectic. Sometimes it seems simple, a tune and shimmering accompaniment, even a single line (as in the third movement, Le Dieu caché). And sometimes it rejoices in a cacophonic chaos of counterpoint (as in movement 13, Les Deux murailles d’eau). It is always direct, however, and utterly sincere. Michael Bonaventure cajoles from the mighty Rieger organ of St Giles’ Cathedral a formidable range of authentically Gallic-sounding colours in his commanding, thrilling and brilliantly executed performance.” Sunday Times, 29th June 2008 **** “In Michael Bonaventure's performance on the Rieger organ of St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, the work plays for almost two hours. On disc it should be sampled in smaller quantities to appreciate the power of the best of the organ writing. Bonaventure certainly allows the music all the space it needs, but there's also a rhythmic energy to his playing that never allows it to hang fire for too long.” The Guardian, 27th June 2008 *** “Bonaventure is utterly compelling and can be heartily recommended.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2008 ***** “Michael Bonaventure's complete Messiaen project (this is Volume 3) returns to St Giles's Cathedral in Edinburgh and its stunning Rieger organ, which dates from 1992.
Messiaen's farewell to the organ, the Livre duSaint Sacrement, was composed in 1984-85 and first performed by Almut Rössler in Detroit in 1986. Messiaen spoke of this Book of the BlessedSacrament as a summation of the experience gained from improvising each Sunday at the Eglise de la Saint-Trinité in Paris, where he was organist for over 60 years. There is no shortage of familiar Messiaenic thumbprints: dislocated ideas, meandering dribbles of plainsong, chirpy birdsong, slow, development-less sudden and spectacular bolts of anger; and those endlessly messy chords that desperately need to resolve.
Playing from memory, Bonaventure takes just under two hours, slightly longer than Olivier Latry at Notre-Dame (DG). Movements 1-4 serve as a prelude or ante-Communion. Movements 5-11 follow events in the life of Jesus, and 12-18 contemplate the mysteries of the Sacrament.
This uneven, over-long piece poses considerable challenges to both player and listener, there being few moments of comfortable repose. The more athletic passages (for example in the Alleluia final – originally entitled 'La Visitation') bounce along with a redeeming joy.
Despite the generous acoustic the Rieger organ is recorded cleanly. It is especially effective in the echo effects in the short fourth movement, 'Acte de Foi'.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | The Organ Works of Olier Messiaen Volumes 5 & 6Organ of Arhus Cathedral, Denmark
| | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Messiaen: Livre du Saint-Sacrement
Elisabeth Zawadke (organ) | |
|
| |  | Messiaen: Livre du Saint-Sacrement
Paul Jacobs (organ at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, New York City) "If there is such a thing as an organ prodigy, Paul Jacobs seems to be it ...a major-league talent." Gramophone “That Paul Jacobs has the requisite stamina is certainly not in doubt...The playing is magnificent, with a splendid sense of colour and power...The registration and speed of each passage are finely judged...There is much to admire here, with dazzlingly refulgent, scrunching chords in the 'Resurrection' movement” BBC Music Magazine, March 2011 *** | | | (also available to download from $11.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
|
|
| |  | Messiaen: Livre du Saint-Sacrement
Anne Page (organ of Norwich Cathedral) | | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Messiaen - The Complete Organ Music, Volume 6
| | | (also available to download from $21.25) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
|
|
| |  | Messiaen: Complete Organ Works Vol. 6
| | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Messiaen - Complete Organ Works
2002 is the tenth anniversary of Messiaen's death. This 6 CD box set of the complete works was recorded on the organ of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris by Olivier Latry. Latry has been the titular organist of the cathedral of Notre Dame since 1985. Messiaen himself could think of no better interpreter of his organ music than Olivier Latry. Yvonne Messiaen, the composer's widow, quotes what her husband said about Oliver Latry: "Olivier Messiaen talked about Olivier Latry as "the new Marcel Dupré". Interpreter, improviser, teacher; his qualities are manifold. His virtuosity, the immensity of his repertoire, his knowledge of all styles. It is difficult to choose what to admire most! Olivier Latry is a master with hands of light, who can restore all the love, the joy and the colours Olivier Messiaen lay into his music." “the cathedral resounds with the meeting between the music, the instrument, and what [Latry] calls 'its jewel-case of stone'....it's actually possible simply to revel in the extraordinary sounds [Messiaen] makes, his intimate understanding of the instrument he wrote for and the colours and textures he could draw from it.” Andrew McGregor, bbc.co.uk, 20th November 2002 “Since 1985 (when he was only 23), Mr. Latry has been one of the three titulaires at France's grandest cathedral, Notre Dame in Paris, whose organ is at heart another Cavaillé-Coll instrument. What makes his new boxed set special is the sound of that instrument. At Messiaen's many ecstatic climaxes or eerie epiphanies, the musical colors emanating from this organ truly seem to be breathing the air of other planets. It's a more amazing sound even than that of Messiaen's own instrument. Yet as another organ built at almost exactly the same time and rooted in Cavaille-Coll, it retains an authenticity that other organs inevitably lack.” New York Times, December 2003 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Messiaen - Complete Organ Works
Hans-Ola Ericsson (playing the Grönlund Organ of Luleå Cathedral, Sweden and the 2006 Gerald Woehl Organ of the Katharinenkirche, Oppenheim, Germany) 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. “of outstanding quality, both musical and technical” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition | | | (also available to download from $38.75) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
|
|
| |  | Messiaen: Organ Works (Complete)
Willem Tanke (Organ, St. Bavo Basilica, Haarlem) | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
|
|
| |
|
Building a Library