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These new volumes are a new re-release starting in October 2002 by Priory Records Ltd. of Gillian Weir's ledgendary recordings of Messiaen at Århus Cathedral in Denmark. This release marks the 10th anniversary of Messiaen's passing. The organ works are offered as five individual CDs, with the fifth one being a double-CD set, making a total of 6 CDs. The new series has been digitally re-mastered for even better sound than the original! The original series has been expanded to include three works published posthumously, making it fully complete.
Front and rear covers of CD booklets:
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| PRCD 921 | PRCD 922 | PRCD 923 | PRCD 924 | PRCD 925/6 |
Re-release Complete!
June 2004
The fifth and sixth volume are combined into this final 2-CD set. The works include Livre du Sacrement, and three new additional works published after Messiaen's death:
These three pieces were not in the original issue of this series, but were recently recorded for this re-release series on the same organ at Århus Cathedral.
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Ben Rayfield
Dame Gillian Weir's landmark recordings of the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen (Priory PRCD921/26), first released in 1994, are still acclaimed as the finest performances of Messiaen's organ music committed to disc. The Gramophone (July 08) hails "the superlative Weir" as its must-have essential recording of the complete works alongside that of Messiaen himself. BBC Radio 3's Building A Library (31 May) hails her La Nativité du Seigneur (Priory PRCD921) as its first choice recommendation of the work; Jeremy Thurlow, comparing all available recordings, comments: "From the dazzling range of colours she produces, you can hear exactly why she chose the magnificent Frobenius organ at Aarhus Cathedral. Every movement is full of intensity, and when you hear her playing you can really feel the music bubbling over with an irrespresible sense of joy".
Gillian Weir's ongoing contribution to the Messiaen centenary celebrations make for a busy year, with participation in the International Messiaen conference in Birmingham, Montreal's Messiaen Festival and Competition, and Messiaen recitals at Stanford University, Durham Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, Music at Oxford in Christ Church Cathedral, and many others.
Gillian Weir is delighted to have been invited to open the Westminster Abbey Organ Festival as part of the South Bank Centre's Messiaen Festival with a performance on July 15 of Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité, selected by The Gramophone as one of July's best events worldwide.
“Dame Gillian Weir's wide-ranging concert repertoire encompasses the early Renaissance to the new premieres of contemporary music scores. She has made numerous organ recordings chronicling her adventuresome journey with this repertoire. The music of Olivier Messiaen, however, helped launch Weir's career as an international concert artist. Her acquaintance with his music began in her college days at the Royal College of Music in London, where, still a relative newcomer to the organ herself, she performed Messiaen's Combat de la Mort et de la Vie from Les Corps Glorieux as a competitor in the St. Albans International Organ Festival in 1964. The international jury and audience members were transfixed, the jury awarded Weir first prize, and her career as an international organ concert artist soon followed.
Many other organists and concert audiences found Messiaen's music difficult to comprehend, however. The immediate connection that Weir felt to his music and her friendship With Messiaen has blessed her with personal insights into his music, which she has in tum shared with audiences throughout the world in concert, lecture, and masterclass. Weir recorded what was then the complete Messiaen organ works in 1979 on the M. P. Möller organ at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which was, incidentally, one of Messiaen's favorite organs. In 1988, Messiaen encouraged Weir to re-record his complete works on CD, which included the recently composed Livre du Saint Sacrement, premiered at the American Guild of Organists 1986 convention in Detroit. Weir recorded Messiaen's organ music on compact disc in 1994, which was released on the Collins Classics label and garnered many prizes, awards, and compliments from organists and musicians the world over. Though the Collins label dIsappeared and the recordings went out of print, Weir's complete Messiaen cycle was reissued on the Priory label in 2002. This recording, Volume 1, features three early organ works of Messiaen, which were composed in late 1920s and 1930s: Apparition de l'Eglise Etemelle, La Nativite du Seigneur (complete), and Le Banquet Celeste.
Weir's choice of organ for her Messiaen cycle is interesting and provocative. Her copious and engaging liner notes remind the listener that although Messiaen presided over the 1858 Cavaillé-Coll organ at l'Eglise de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris for over sixty years, and that most of his organ music was created on this particular organ, "he was by no means wedded to the sound of this one organ." Theophil M. Otto's fascinating article "Messiaen and the Baroque Organ," which was published in the September 1978 issue of Music/The AGO-RCCO Magazine, confirms this and relates Almut Rössler's experiences with Messiaen on the 1954 Rudolf von Beckerath organ at the Johanniskirche in Dusseldorf, Germany.
In the liner notes, Weir describes the primary characteristics that Messiaen deemed necessary for an organ to effectively portray his organ music. The first of these is power (the organ should be able to overwhelm the listener), clarity, color (exhibited by a variety of mutation stops), and finally, in Weir's words, "the ringing French reeds, bursting forth from a Swell box or, in the Pedal, magnificently underpinning the whole structure." Weir's search for an organ that possessed these qualities ended surprisingly not in France, but in Denmark, at the Domkirche in Århus, which possesses an organ built by the Danish company Th. Frobenius and Sons (Lyngby) in 1928, with further expansion and selective revoicing carried out by this same builder three different times. The organ currently comprises 89 stops and was the largest organ in Denmark for many years until 1995, when the large Marcussen organ at the Domkirche in Copenhagen unseated it. The Århus organ will become the third largest organ in Denmark in 2008, when a new 91-stop J. L. van den Heuvel Orgelbouw is installed in a 2,000-seat concert hall that will be found in the new DR-BYEN (Danish Radio and TV) complex in Copenhagen.
One might find Weir's choice of a Frobenius organ slightly surprising, but a few minutes' listening allays any fears of a mismatch between organ and music. All of the requirements for a Messiaen organ are met. The organ has plenty of power, all of the reed stops were imported from France; mutations are plentiful (in this organ they are available on all divisions), creating a diverse variety of color. Clarity is also evident on the recording, whether due to microphone placement, acoustics, or both, but the recording has instilled within this reviewer a strong desire to hear this organ in person.
Apparition de l'Eglise Eternelle serves as a very effective work with which to open this recording. Its subtle, yet intense beginning, acheived with the full Svelleværk division with the expression pedal closed, builds as the swell box gradually opens, manuals are changed, and stops are added as a magnificent vision of a church gradually comes to view. The climax, which symbolizes the listener's beholding of the church in magnificent splendor in full view, is absolutely riveting. This reviewer was awestruck by the sheer power and grandeur of the Pedal 32' Kontrafagot, which, full of fundamental and visceral force, delivers thundering hammer-like blows on octave low-C notes that remind the listener of the sheer force it takes to symbolically build the church in the piece. The work ends as effectively as it began, with the church ever so slowly disappearing from view, and before the listener knows it, the vision has all but disappeared, as the foundation stops of the Svelleværk fade into oblivion. Weir's performance of this work, coupled with this organ, is by itself worth the price of this recording.
Weir then traverses the entire La Nativite du Seigneur cycle with authority and grace- the work receives a positively superb reading. Weir exploits virtually every possible color of the Frobenius organ to fine effect. Each of these nine movements portrays a variety of moods and emotions- from the meditative celestes and flutes of Desseins Eternels to the folklike charm of Les Bergers to the blaze of color and glory of Dieu parmi nous, which is both scintillating and hairraising. Weir not only succeeds in playing each work with musicality and admirable technical prowess, but effectively weds the music to its religious context. The album closes with Messiaen's first published work, Le Banquet Celeste, as Weir delicately traverses the timeless harmonies and water drops witll the utmost sensitivity.
The liner notes that accompany the recording are simply stunning- so complete and informative. Weir is as gifted a writer as she is an organist and gives detailed and knowledgeable information about each of the works on the recording. In addition to the notes about this recording, the CD offers several bonus materials in the notes. A fantastic reprint of Weir's article "En Souvenir ... Olivier Messiaen 1908-1992" that she wrote for The Organists' Review is also included, detailing Weir's many interactions with and information about Messiaen himself. Weir's article on the Frobenius organ used for the recording is also interesting, and Jean-Louis Coignet, Expert-organier of the City of Paris and Technicienconseil for historic organs at the French Ministry of Culture, provides an interesting history of the Cavaillé-Coll organ in l'Eglise de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris. A most helpful catalogue of Messiaen's organ works follows, which is followed by an even more detailed record of significant dates in Messiaen's life. Vincent Walsh's article on synaesthesia is a masterpiece. This is a masterful recording in every way. Do purchase it.”
David Pickering, Graceland University , July 2008 The Diapason
“Her complete Messiaen cycle for instance has, for my money,
never been bettered.”
Chris Bragg, February 2006 Musicweb
“It may be blasphemous for some to suggest that a composer's works are often better
played by a non-composing virtuoso musician than by the creator himself,
but in all honesty no one understands or plays this music better than
this English virtuoso.”
The Omnibus Essential Guide to Classical CDs
“This is a definitive recording, bestowing the touch of le maitre.
Nuance abounds, the interpretations are fresh, and the intent of the style becomes evident, as well it should be in the presence of mastery.
Weir brings the spirit of Messiaen to a comprehensible level for the listener. She teaches us not only
how it should be played, but also how it should be heard. The notes in the
accompanying literature are worth the price of the album alone, and you get the two discs as well.”
The American Organist, March 2006
“No matter how many organ recordings I listen to, those
of Gillian Weir simply mesmerise me, no less so than in her reissued series of
recordings of Messiaen.
It is though she is in contant communication with that extraordinary composer.
She performs this series on the fabulous Frobenius Organ of Arhus Cathedral,
Denmark. Not one to be afraid of moving away from the
Cavaillé-Colls the composer originally intended them for,
Weir is content to convince audiences that this music is worthy of any
organ of similar stature.
The point is proven.
Like Bach, Messiaen has a unique power to convey the Christian message but equally one
senses the humanism in both. I get this
sense whenever I hear this music, although
I must admit my colour sense of not affected by it. I cannot pretend to have
been blessed or cursed with synaesthesia
but try as I might I have to admit that I
am never going to 'see' with my ears; imagine, yes.
Weir achieves that in her performances here, my imagination
surfing a musical range of quite extraordinary depths.
Here is, perhaps, some of the most important music of the twentieth century and it was all written for organ.
What more of a statement can a composer give? What more of a statement can one of the world's
most imaginative artists give?
If you cannot hear this music, don't
give up because one day it may transform your aural
perception; certainly these performances will bring you to that threshold.”
The Organ, February 2005
“incomarable interpretations”, “unmissable”
Organists' Review, February 2005
“Gillian Weir's magnificently recorded coverage of Messiaen's
organ music dates from 1994. It was recorded on the superb organ of Aarhus Cathedral,
Denmark, in association with BBC Radio 3, and was
originally issued on Collins — to be withdrawn only
too swiftly when that label disappeared. On its original
issue it received an extraordinary number of
accolades, both for Gillian Weir's astonishing virtuosity
and control, and indeed for the demonstration
quality of the recording. Now it returns on Priory,
and its excellence is confirmed. The authority and
conviction of her playing shinees out through the entire project: its
concentration and power are immediately apparent
in the opening Apparition de l'église éternelle, while
Le Banquet céleste and the remarkably diverse Le
Corps glorieux show the strength of her characterization.”
The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs & DVDs Yearbook 2004/5
Review comments are for all five new volumes,
which are noted as “Key recording - suitable as a basis for a collection;
*** An outstanding performance and recording in every way”
(ratings are *, **, or ***)
“Gillian Weir's cycle remains the best of all, and she, playing the marvellous
Frobenius instrument at Århus, brings that special spaciousness and intensity to
the Livre that distinguishes her cycle as a whole... It is, quite simply, one of
the finest organ recordings ever made.”
Arnold Whittall, October 2004 Awards issue of Gramophone
The organ works of Olivier Messiaen are now recognized as among the most important creations for the instrument in the 20th century. In recent years, several artists, following the example of the composer himself, have undertaken the daunting task of committing the complete œuvre to disc. Dame Gillian Weir first recorded the (then) complete organ works in 1979 at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., where Messiaen premiered his Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité. The composer later persuaded her to re-record the series digitally (“CDs are all the rage now, you know!” he said), which she did in 1994. Originally issued on Collins Classics in association with BBC Radio 3, these recordings, which have garnered rave review internationally, were sadly allowed to fall out of print, and were for some time unavailable. Fortunately, Priory Records had the wisdom to re-release the entire set in 2003. Volume One presents the early works: Apparition de l'Église eternelle, La Nativité du Seigneur, and Le Banquet céleste. Volume Four contains L'Ascension and Livre d'orgue.
Gillian Weir won First Prize at the St. Alban's
International Organ Festival with her
playing of Messiaen's Combat de la mort et
de la vie from Les Corps glorieux. Ever since,
his music has occupied a central place in her multi-faceted career.
Her consummate artistry, impeccable musicianship, faultless virtuosity, rhythmic plasticity,
and vitality enable her to penetrate all the complexities of the music
and render its essential spirit.
Thus, for example, she conquers the
labyrinthine rhythms and technical challenges
of Livre d'orgue, so that it becomes a real
spiritual experience, rather than merely
a well-performed pedantic exercise. If the
listener has difficulty appreciating this music,
at least s/he will find it interesting in
Weir's hands. At the heart of all of Messiaen's
music is his deep-seated Catholic faith,
coupled with his love of nature (especially
mountains and bird song) and his predilection
for color. Gillian Weir is clearly a kindred spirit, and
this music comes vitally
alive in her performances. The Frobenius organ
is well chosen. The largest in Denmark,
it has all the requisite tone colors, including
a multitude of mutations and powerful reeds
imported from France. Compared to the
darker-sounding Cavaillé-Coll organs, such
as the one at La Trinité in Paris where Messiaen
was organist for many decades, this
instrument is luminous, with a transparency,
purity, and clarity of sound, yet capable of
great power, able to “overwhelm” the listener,
as Messiaen wished. Kudos to Priory
for this re-issue. To quote a previous review from the
BBC Music Magazine, “This is a Messiaen
cycle that should now enter the shelves of every devotee of his musc
as a preferred version.”
The American Organist, October 2004
“In this fourth volume of Dame Gillian's Messiaen... we see her at her intellectual and musical height.
She balances the relatively 'early' L'Ascension with the much later
(and harder to understand) Livre d'Orgue, reaches into their depths and produces
performances of penetrating clarity.
So, for a reference interpretation of the familiar earler work and an flinging open of the window
into Messiaen's later complexities , her playing cannot be bettered.”
Walter Reeves, Organists' Review, May 2004
“... Transports de Joie makes the hairs on the back of one's neck stand on end!”
Sydney Organ Journal, February 2004
“One might say that Dame Gillian Weir as born to play Messiaen... such is the authority
of [her] interpretations...
Every facet of the music — technical,
spiritual, emotional — is conveyed with
conviction and intensity, and the Frobenius organ of Arhus Cathedral is an ideal partner.”
Christopher Nickol, Gramophone, February 2004
“...virtuosic and electrifying playing... will leave many listeners gasping.”
Peter Jewkes, Sydney Organ Journal, August 2003
“A superlative recording” (5 stars).
Choir & Organ, May/June 2003
“Gillian Weir's performance of
Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité
comes as if stamped with the composer's imprimateur and
stands second only to the recording made by Messiaen himself in terms
of faithful insight into the music.
Her own virtuosity and understanding of the music are magnificent.”
Church Music Quarterly, April 2003
“No other player seems quite to equal Weir's remarkable identification with the reflective and
dramatically explosive extremes of Messiaen's idiom.
It looks as if Gillian Weir's performances will again claim the definitive status which
they were accorded on their earlier incarnation. A further attraction comes in the extensive booklet notes, which
centre on those written by Weir herself, underlining the reasons why this
music matters so much to her,
and also including a wealth of personal anecdote.”
Arnold Whittall, Gramophone, February 2003
“How refreshing! Priory has taken what was already a marvellous disc and made it even better... plaudits by the bucket-load.”
Christopher Dingle, BBC Music Magazine, April 2003
“Messiaen's organ music – indeed, his musical language –
is highly individual and not to everyone's taste.
But if his mystical, shimmering harmonies and subtle, complex rhythms are
for you, then you will never hear a finer recording of his work than this.
Dame Gillian plays the mighty Frobenius organ of Denmark's
Arhus Cathedral
(and contributes her own lively and affectionate memories of the composer).
After the powerful
Apparition de l'Eglise Eternelle,
Weir gives us La Nativité du Seigneur,
Messiaen's first major organ cycle,
a tremendous tour de force from composer and soloist.
Jeremy Nicholas, Classic FM Magagzine, March 2003.
“Reclaims its definitive status.”
Gramophone, March 2003
“Priory has embarked on the re-release of Dame Gillian Weir's famed complete Messiaen
recordings, already nine years old. They took the world by storm at the time so it is
marvellous they will now be available in
the catalogue as single CDs.”
Organists' Review, February 2003
“Gillian Weir's Messiaen intégrale came out in 1994,
and this first evidence of a reissue by Priory is both a coup
for the company and a reminder of Dame Gillian's magisterial achievement.
Here are Messiaen and Weir making the vision take on a palpable reality...
the whole CD is a vibrant and thrilling experience.”
Robert Anderson, Music & Vision, January 2003
“One of the most impressive instrumental recording projects I have ever encountered.” Independent on Sunday
“This intégrale is a worthy successor to that by Messiaen himself” Le Monde (Paris)
“This is a Messiaen cycle that should now enter the shelves of every devotee of his music as a preferred version” BBC Music Magazine (Best CDs of 1994)
“Weir's virtuosity and technical control are staggering. An achievement of outstanding musical integrity.” The Gramophone (1995 Instrumental Award nominee)
“An absolute triumph... This release represents one of the major recording triumphs of the century.” In Tune
and from Yvonne Loriod Messiaen: “C'est magnifique!”
| Disc | Track | Music | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vol. 1 | 1 | Apparition de l'Église éternelle | |
| 2 | La Nativité du Seigneur | I. La Vierge et l'Enfant | |
| 3 | II. Les Bergers | ||
| 4 | III. Desseins éternels | ||
| 5 | IV. Le Verbe | ||
| 6 | V. Les Enfants de Dieu | ||
| 7 | VI. Les Anges | ||
| 8 | VII. Jésus accepte la souffrance | ||
| 9 | VIII. Les Mages | ||
| 10 | IX. Dieu parmi nous | ||
| 11 | Le Banquet céleste | ||
| Vol. 2 | 1 | Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité | I. Le Père inengendré |
| 2 | II. La Sainteté du Jésus-Christ | ||
| 3 | III. La Relation réelle en Dieu est réellement identique à l'essence | ||
| 4 | IV. Je suis, je suis! | ||
| 5 | V. Dieu est immense, eternel, immuable; Le souffle de l'Esprit; Dieu est amour | ||
| 6 | VI. Le Fils, Verbe et Lumière | ||
| 7 | VII. Le Père et le Fils aiment, par le Saint-Esprit, eux-mêmes et nous | ||
| 8 | VIII. Dieu est simple | ||
| 9 | IX. Je suis Celui qui suis | ||
| Vol. 3 | 1 | Les Corps Glorieux | I. Subtilité des Corps Glorieux |
| 2 | II. Les Eaux de la Grâce | ||
| 3 | III. L'Ange aux Parfums | ||
| 4 | IV. Combat de la Mort et de la Vie | ||
5  | V. Force et Agilité des Corps Glorieux | ||
| 6 | VI. Joie et Clarté des Corps Glorieux | ||
| 7 | VII. Le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité | ||
| 8 | Messe De La Pentecôte | I. Entrée: Les Langues de Feu | |
| 9 | II. Offertoire: Les Choses Visibles et Invisibles | ||
| 10 | III. Consécration: Le Don de Sagesse | ||
| 11 | IV. Communion: Les Oiseaux et les Sources | ||
| 12 | V. Sortie: Le Vent de l'Esprit | ||
| Vol. 4 | 1 | L'Ascension | I. Majesté du Christ |
| 2 | II. Alléluias sereins | ||
| 3 | III. Transports de joie | ||
| 4 | IV. Prière du Christ | ||
| 5 | Livre d'Orgue | I. Reprises par interversion | |
| 6 | II. Pièce en Trio | ||
| 7 | III. Les mains de l'Abîme | ||
| 8 | IV. Chants d'Oiseaux | ||
| 9 | V. Pièce en Trio | ||
| 10 | VI. Les Yeux dans les Roues | ||
| 11 | VII. Soixante-Quatre Durées | ||
| Vol. 5 | 1 | Livre du Sacrement | I. Adoro te |
| 2 | II. La Source de Vie | ||
| 3 | III. Le Dieu caché | ||
| 4 | IV. Acte de Foi | ||
| 5 | V. Puer natus est nobis | ||
| 6 | VI. La manne et le Pain de Vie | ||
| 7 | VII. Les ressuscités et la lumière de vie | ||
| 8 | VIII. Institution de l' Eucharistie | ||
| 9 | IX. Les Ténèbres | ||
| 10 | X. La Résurrection du Christ | ||
| 11 | XI. L'apparition du Christ ressuscité à Marie-Madeleine | ||
| 12 | XII. La Transsubstantiation | ||
| Vol. 6 | 1 | XIII. Les deux murailles d'eau | |
| 2 | XIV. Prière avant la Communion | ||
| 3 | XV. La joie de la Grâce | ||
| 4 | XVI. Prière aprè la Communion | ||
| 5 | XVII. La Présence multiplée | ||
| 6 | XVIII. Offrande et Alléluia final | ||
| 7 | Prélude | ||
| 8 | Monodie | ||
| 9 | Verset pour la Fête de la Dédicace | ||
| 10 | Offrande au Saint Sacrement | ||
| 11 | Diptyque - Essai sur la vie terrestre et l'éternité bienheureuse | ||