Messiaen, part 2

Yesterday we went to hear an organ concert at the Eglise de Trinité.  The program was a single work by Messiaen, "Le Livre du Sacrement", his last work for organ.  Though the announcement said the concert was an hour long, what we heard was the complete work, which last 2 hours and 15 minutes.  What made this concert very special was that this was the church and organ where Messiaen was the organist for some 60 years, and that the organ had been renovated and improved according to his specifications, and that he had composed the work with this organ in mind.  And furthermore, the organist, Jon Gillock, was his student.   The concert was extraordinary; the sound of the organ was astonishingly varied and the thundering climaxes were truly awesome in the true sense of the word.  I was totally focused the entire time.  There were moments when it seemed that every stop and every note was being employed; creating 2001 Ligeti-like sounds.  This contrasting with other moments of extreme delicacy (bird songs, of course).  And many sonorities I didn't know you could get from an organ.  The effect of reverberation in the church was amazing; a thundering chord would echo and reverberate for three or four seconds across the church.   It was an event which you could never experience in a recording;  a truly memorable Easter Sunday in Paris!

The church:

I also went to see an exhibit at the Cité de la Musique on Cinema and Music.  It was mostly didactic in nature.  Since I have taught a course in film music many times, there was not much for me to learn.   I did enjoy seeing many original manuscripts of film scores that I know and love.   On the whole, it was extremely well presented, and the film excerpts shown were ones that I would have chosen myself .

The original score for "Breathless"

 Next to the Cité de la Musique, I saw the construction site of the future Philharmonie de Paris, a Jean Nouvel designed concert hall for Paris.   It will be finished sometime this century, but definitely before a concert hall is ever built in Vancouver.