Olivier Messiaen. La Nativite du Seigneur

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OLIVIER MESSIAEN
Michael Frith

Release Date:  (10th December 1908 — 27th April 1992)

In 1919 the ten-year-old Messiaen began to attend classes at the Paris Conservatoire, as a pianist with ambitions as a composer. Only when aged eighteen, after his teachers had discerned in him a remarkable talent for improvisation, was he sent to join Marcel Dupré’s organ class. Yet only two years later he won the organ premier prix and after only another two years he was appointed to one of France’s most prestigious organ posts — that of Organiste Titulaire at the church of La Trinité in Paris, a position he held until his death. His appointment was controversial, but it was supported by many of the leading organists in Paris, some of whom withdrew their own candidatures or those of their pupils. ‘Chez Messiaen’ wrote Charles Tournemire in his testimonial, ‘tout est prière’ (‘with Messiaen everything is prayer’), and for his whole life his main ambition as a composer and liturgical organist was to give expression to the truths of the Catholic faith, from which he never wavered.