Notre Dame Cathedral Pipe Organ Messiaen Dieu Parmi Nous

Performed by Pierre Cochereau. Dieu Parmi Nous ('God Among Us') was a popular showpiece at organ concerts in the 60's & 70's. Not so much any more. Maybe because it's fiendishly difficult to play. Or maybe because Messiaen's popularity has waned. He's a very difficult composer to like; it's not sensual music, it's intellectual (in my humble opinion).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Notre Dame
• Cathedral
• Paris
• pipe
• organ
• orgue
• orgel
• Cochereau
• Messiaen

[wally5353]

Very nice to hear a performance by a French virtuouso on a magnificent historical instrument. How can anyone listen to this and say Messiaen is not "sensual"?

[a55b47]

Believe me, you're not the first person to question my evaluation ;-)

[ds1868]

I stand corrected on my earlier comment - the Robert Boisseau chamades make there dramatic presence felt in the final statements of this recording. Can you confirm the date of the recording a55b47? Was it late 70's? Totally devastating stuff, please can the NDdeP authorities get the Robert Boisseau chamades back to where they were please???

[a55b47]

ds, see above ceomment re recording date. Sorry I can't be more help; I got rid of the original LP many years ago, when I transferred all my old LP's to CD (& now CD's are out-of-date ;-)

[aamusc]

Is this the 1977 recording? I've just learned about it last Sunday. We've been having quite a lot of Messiaen playing in Ann Arbor lately. If it is the 1977, then I'm blessed to have access to it here! Thanks.

[a55b47]

I wish I could tell you, but I'm not sure. I bought the old LP in the early 1980's (I think), &, unlike most of the Cochereau recoridngs, it didn't have the recording date listed. I don't think it was one of the Solstice recordings that Francois Carbou produced, or it would have had the date; mayber it was Philips? In any event, given the date of purchase, it could have well been the '77 recording.

[megaswenson]

That's the most astonishing photo at the end. Aside from the rays of Celestial light, it's the best photo I've seen, showing the Cathedral as a whole.

Great visuals, and, of course, a fantastic work of music. Thanks!

[The48robert]

It's the performer and his understanding I'm not liking!

[brearleyhb]

i think latry is better i think, he uses the stops much more fluently :-)- in my humble opinion :-).

[MegaDani141]

I think it should be a little faster, like Oliver Latrys version..........

BUT nice rangs..... ^^

[MoomiaMenazes]

@dolofonos :

You have no taste at all.

[dolofonos]

Either I have bad taste, or this is bad music.

[Auriga37]

My father and I once walked into Notre Dame, not knowing that an organ recital was in progress. It seemed as if half the Parisian population was there, and they didn't notice us at all. We had an unforgettable dinner on one of "Les Bateaux Mouches" the same evening. Curious that one's featured at the beginning of the montage. (I've also heard this piece several times in recitals, and it's absolutely overpowering).

[TheCatedral]

L'une des meilleures interprétations - peut-être la meilleure après celle de Monsieur Olivier Messiaen de son oeuvre - que l'on puisse trouver de ce chef-d'oeuvre. Le génie de Cochereau adjoint à la lumineuse créativité effervescente et pleine de vie et de foi de Messiaen: Quelle merveille!

[ds1868]

@MrAlex413x Continued: However, when you couple a mutation to a lower scale rank, (i.e if you couple a 10 2/3 Quint to a 16' Principal or Subbass) weird things begin to happen, Strong sub-harmonics develop much lower down the frequency, to 32' pitch or even lower. This is often called 'derived' or 'resultant' harmonics, and can be extremely effective. Cochereau's favourite was to tie the 4 4/7 Septieme to the 16' Contrabasse at Notre Dame: this has the effect of a chorus of double basses.

[ds1868]

@MrAlex413x A quint (or 'fifth') is a mutated flue stop sounding a fundamental fifth tone through the scale. So a manual 5 1/3 stop is will sound a fundamental fifth from the scale of an 8' stop, an octave quint 2 2/3 will correspondingly sound an octave higher etc. Mutated flute stops have different names: mutated fifth flute is called a Nazard, a mutated third flute a tierce, and especially on French organs a mutated flat twenty-first is called a Septieme. Notre Dame has many mutated stops!!!