Here’s a cartoon that was posted to Facebook recently.
It’s Pentecost this Sunday, a day I have always thought of as a “bookend” to the church music season — in spite of the fact that I have one more Sunday to play after that before going on vacation. For the prelude, I’ll be playing “Apparition de l’Eglise éternelle” by Olivier Messiaen, and although I’ve played the piece several times before, I thought I’d give you fair warning.
I’m embedding a video of the piece played by Olivier Latry, who was appointed organist of Notre Dame when he was only 23 years old. Some of the comments that people have made about this video are:
“The words ‘truly stunning’ is a sheer understatement to this piece.
“this probably [is] the most awesomely intense organ piece I’ve ever heard.”
“Stunning, humbling, towering, ascendant”
“this piece is truly MONSTROUS in the original sense of the word, meaning something vast prodigous and terrible (ie awe inspiring); this piece is HOLY AND TERRIBLE.”
Let me know what you think!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUgm1Pp_l9Y?rel=0]
Are you going to be playing this at ‘Iolani too, this week? It’s one of my favorite pieces, would like to come and hear it, but probably can’t come on Sunday.
I love that work. First Messiaen I ever tackled, and as one of his earlier works, it’s a great introduction to Messiaen for a young organ student.
As you might imagine, I’m with the Altar Guild. 😉