LDV49.1

78 MESSIAEN_THE ORGAN WORKS I don’t know what Messiaen would think of these considerations in theoretical terms, but it seems to me that in practical terms he offers a good justification for them. For those who have tried tomake the calculations that are prerequisites for performing certain pieces (the shorter Pièce en trio of the Livre d’orgue , for example), it is initially disconcerting, then reassuring, to hear the version recorded by the composer . . . Listening to his interpretation, one becomes aware of a dual aspect to Messiaen’s personality: on the one hand, there is the composer, careful, meticulous, anxious to justify his compositional act with theoretical, musical or extra-musical arguments; on the other hand, the musician who, quite simply, sings. In this recording, Messiaen, wholly wrapped up in his inner song, goes his own way, playing fast and loose with the details of a text so carefully thought out, without worrying about the somewhat raucous character of an organ on which the caprices of temperature and the economic difficulties of the time had left their mark.