Messiaen’s Musical Universe

Tom Bell performs three of Messiaen’s great cycles of organ music: La Nativité, Messe de la Pentecôte, as well as the magisterial Livre du Saint-Sacrement in its entirety, plus the early Le Banquet Celeste. These are filmed and recorded at Blackburn Cathedral, home of the best organ for playing Messiaen’s organ music in the UK. In an accompanying four-part magisterial documentary, almost four hours long, biographer and scholar Christopher Dingle explores Messiaen’s life and compositional styles and development in relation to his organ music. This includes footage in which Thomas Lacôte demonstrates the organ of Sainte Trinité in Paris, where the composer was organiste titulaire for 60 years.