Olivier Messiaen Meditations on the mystery of the Holy Trinity Videos
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2024-04-25
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Le Banquet Celeste / one of Messiaen's more accessible pieces. I've spent 40 years trying to decide how I feel about his music. I know I SHOULD like it. True story. In early 1972, my hometown (Washington, DC) was all abuzz. Or at least the Washington Catholic community was. Messiaen was coming to town to play the World Premiere of his "Meditations on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity" [now there's a title to warm the cockles of a good Catholic's heart ;-) ]. As a lapsed Methodist & an organ-lover, I thought I'd mosey up to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception & see what all the fuss was about. The Shrine, which bills itself as The Largest Catholic Church in the Western Hemisphere, was packed. There must have been 10,000 people. It seemed that every priest & nun on the Eastern Seaboard had been bused in to see & hear the French Mystic. The anticipation was palpable. Messiaen started playing, & an hour & a half later, we all sat in stunned silence. We looked at each other & said, in the words of Peggy Lee, "Is That All There Is?" We came expecting musical enlightenment & got 90 minutes of.....bird calls. I've never seen a more disappointed crowd before or since. So I've tended to look at Messiaen through skeptical glasses ever since. Some of his music, like The Celestial Banquet, is magically ethereal. but a lot of it is just plain weird. For some of the most amazing pictures you've ever seen of St. Sulpice (or any other church, for that matter) click on (http•••)
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