Messiaen L'Ascension, for solo organ Part Two

Messiaen L'Ascension, for solo organ Part Two, performed by Olivier Latry at Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms 2008 season.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• L'Ascension
• solo
• organ
• royal
• albert
• hall
• proms
• 2008
• Olivier
• Latry

[jamesaellis]

messiaen was there in spirt

[chamade216]

Great ! Thanks for sharing !

[CBeaumontXylophone]

@ds1868 This movement suits this Organ perfectly. Most of the time, these beautiful smaller ranks of pipes are not heard, which is very sad. The second movement would be nice on this Organ as well.

[ds1868]

@goodchappy I never said I 'did not like' the RAH organ. There are simply issues of 'balance' that the recent restoration has underlined. In England I would go for St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, and King's College Cambridge (the choir division here is the finest of its type in the world). But for the complete experience of the romantic genre, you need to go to France, and listen to St Sulpice in Paris and St Ouen in Rouen, Normandy.

[goodchappy]

@ds1868 If you do not like the RAH organ, which organs in the UK would you say were good and for what reasons?

[arasharfa]

@dannypurtell stop coughing ;)

[CavailleCollFanatic]

That was magnificent!

[juanmaMCMLXXXII]

¿¿Cómo es posible que haya alguien a quien no le haya gustado esto??

[ds1868]

@ArnoldVroomans The RAH organ is not a Willis. When rebuilt by Harrisons the Willis pipes were revoiced and a substantial number of Harrison pipes were added. When Manders restored the organ in 2002-04, they were asked if the Willis pipework could be restored to original condition. The answer was no. What you hear today is a 'hybrid' Harrisons organ, with much altered Willis pipework lurking underneath.

[ArnoldVroomans]

@ds1868 The reason is simple. Those are the original voices with the original voicing. It is Willis!

Unfortuantely the other stug has been revoiced by people with not enough respect for the original.

[fastmotorcycle]

Tho' not not a deeply religious person, and having as an organ builder heard

this music many times before, I now know what the first Olivier meant and

the second Olivier brought to me , deeply, ever so deeply. Music, raised and

elevated. Give Thanks!

[fremsley001]

During his incarceration in Stalag VIII-A in 1940, Messiaen arranged L'Ascension for paper and comb orchestra, but it was never performed because of the shortage of toilet paper. Much later on, Jess Yates and Rolf Harris help to popularise L'Ascension with versions for tremolo electric organ and Stylophone respectively.

(P-J Croset, "L'Ascension dans la Culture Moderne", Les Editions Gallimard, 1983, trans. B. Jarvis)