Messiaen: Messe de la Pentecote

Messiaen - The Organ Works Vol. 3

played on organ at Beauvais Cathedral

Organ Works

Messiaen - The Complete Organ Music, Volume 3

Messiaen: Complete Organ Works Vol. 5

Olivier Messiaen - Centenary Edition

1972 recordings. This centenary set from Calliope is a well-timed reminder of the great recordings that continue to emanate from this label. Messiaen’s many distinguished pupils included Pierre Boulez, Yvonne Loriod (who later became Messiaen's second wife), Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis and George Benjamin. Louis Thiry recorded almost all the organ works, after working on the scores with the composer in these first stereo recordings.

Messiaen Organ Works

Messiaen - Organ Works (Complete)

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."

Messiaen - The Organ Works

Messiaen Edition Volume 1

Piano Works, Organ Works & Songs

The long life and passionate, exotic music of Olivier Messiaen are big news in this, the centenary year of his birth. Festivals worldwide are celebrating one of the last century’s greatest composers and his heady blend of a musical language that moves from the rich romanticism of the French organ tradition to the diamond precision of a modernism which hugely influenced the leaders of the postwar avant-garde such as Boulez and Stockhausen. His love of God and nature is everywhere evident in the vast cycles of works such as La Nativité du Seigneur and Vingt Régards sur l’Enfant Jésus, but so is a delight in instrumental virtuosity: he was himself a superb organist and pianist. All of these recordings were critically acclaimed when they first appeared; they have been reissued with extensive notes and full texts for the songs.