Complete Organ Works on 6CDs

GRAMOPHONE AWARD NOMINATION 2002 - Instrumental

"Newcomers to this body of music may fight shy of committing themselves to the outlay required for Latry. (They will gain many hours of pleasure and unfailingly sensitive playing) plus the thrill of the vivid recording and his dramatic instincts. This sets the standard."
(Classical Music Web)

"The stained-glass windows magnify the light, one of God's first creations, but the organ brings to the church something similar to light that yet surpasses it: the music of the Invisible. It is the wondrous overture to the Beyond..." (Olivier Messiaen)

- To Messiaen, (an organist for more than 60 years at La Trinité church in Paris) the organ was the perfect instrument with which to express his deep christian theology. He was particularly attracted to the Gospel stories such as the Nativity, the Transfiguration, the Resurrection and the Ascension. Such early works as Le Banquet célèste, Diptyque, L'Ascension, La Nativité du Seigneur and Les corps glorieux were consequently written for the organ and are at the same time as rich and sonorous as any of his orchestral writing.

- The religious topics he chose to write about all bear on a theme particularly suited to music, that of contact between the everyday and the eternal. Though he was a christian, he was no means writing just for his own church. As Messiaen went on, he drew more and more into his music the songs of birds and the rhythms of medieval India, modern serialism and the sounds of wind or water. The "church" for which he was writing became the world.

- 2002 is the tenth anniversary of Messiaen's death. This 6 CD box set of the complete works was recorded on the organ of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris by Olivier Latry. Latry has been the titular organist of the cathedral of Notre Dame since 1985.

- Messiaen himself could think of no better interpreter of his organ music than Olivier Latry. Yvonne Messiaen, the composer's widow, quotes what her husband said about Oliver Latry: "Olivier Messiaen talked about Olivier Latry as "the new Marcel Dupré". Interpreter, improviser, teacher; his qualities are manifold. His virtuosity, the immensity of his repertoire, his knowledge of all styles. It is difficult to choose what to admire most! Olivier Latry is a master with hands of light, who can restore all the love, the joy and the colours Olivier Messiaen lay into his music."