Messiaen: L’Ascension (2016)

Olivier Messiaen’s early organ works helped establish him as a towering figure of 20th century music. L’Ascension is the most significant of these, with its solemn majesty, dazzling colours and near-static serenity and timelessness. These qualities were already present in Le Banquet céleste, Messiaen’s first published organ work, and in Apparition de l’Église éternelle – a powerful representation of the eternal church emerging and fading from view. The two works discovered posthumously in 1997, Prélude and Offrande au Saint-Sacrement, show the influence of Dupré and Tournemire. Tom Winpenny’s acclaimed recording of Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur can be heard on Naxos 8573332.