# Messiaen: Organ works, recommended recordings?



## FPwtc (Dec 3, 2014)

I am quite keen to get a single or double disk of some of Messiaen's Organ works for casual listening. I have received some excellent recommendations for some of his work from another post but this was more for the box sets and larger works. 

Please recommend a few definitive recordings please!


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

Hello FPwtc,

I warmly recommend that you get Olivier Latry's recordings from Notre-Dame in Paris - Latry is so terrifyingly virtuosic and musically unreproachable.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Latry for all of the above reasons! Even if Messiaen's own Pathe recordings are well worth hearing.. 

/ptr


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

FPwtc said:


> I am quite keen to get a single or double disk of some of Messiaen's Organ works for casual listening. I have received some excellent recommendations for some of his work from another post but this was more for the box sets and larger works.
> 
> Please recommend a few definitive recordings please!


I recommend that you start with the Livre du saint sacrement by Susan Landale (Cavaillé-Coll/Rouen) and Louis Thiry in the Livre d'orgue (Trinité Paris)

Generally I think Thiry is a good bet.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

I enjoy both Latry and Thiry, and have also heard good things about both Jennifer Bate and Gillian Weir -- the latter is your best bet for a double CD as all the others seem to be hardly available outside of complete organ works. I have the complete organ works with Latry from the Messiaen edition and am happy with them though, I can report :tiphat:


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## ribonucleic (Aug 20, 2014)

Of the performances I've heard, those of Jennifer Bate are the most profound. I would start with _L'Ascension_.

http://www.amazon.com/Messiaen-LAscension-Corps-Glorieux-Bate/dp/B0000AL9ED


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

None , horrible music and I would say, run while you can,


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Pugg said:


> None , horrible music and I would say, run while you can,


Valuable contribution to the thread, thanks.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Chronochromie said:


> Valuable contribution to the thread, thanks.


That's the problem with intellectual members, they don't have one ounce off humour


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Pugg said:


> That's the problem with intellectual members, they don't have one ounce off humour


 I'm not what you would call intellectual. If it was a joke it didn't seem like one to me or it just wasn't very good.


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## FPwtc (Dec 3, 2014)

Thanks for the excellent suggestions guys! I will have a listen on Spotify and decide which I prefer. Very helpful!


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

In agreement with lots of the above. Latry and Messiaen are top of the list. But I'd just like to add Jennifer Bate. You can buy a 6Cd survey of her performances and very good it is too.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

MagneticGhost said:


> Jennifer Bate. You can buy a 6Cd survey of her performances and very good it is too.


I'm not sure this can be had for an affordable price? I got the 6 disc set for around 25 dollars a year and a half ago, but the price has gone way up since then. The Latry is cheaper at this point.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

There's one thing Bate recorded which is worth making an effort to hear, the Livre du Saint Sacrement, she created the music, she was supervised by Messiaen while she recorded it, he approved enthusiastically of what she did, and I think the way she does it is pretty good.

It's a major piece of work, the livre du Saint sacrement, modern and uncompromising and possibly with deep things to say.


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