LDV49.1

55 LOUIS THIRY In 1972, your first recording project came to fruition: the Calliope label asked you to record the works of Olivier Messiaen. How did that happen? André Isoir had embarked on an Anthology of French organ music. The contemporary section was to be devoted to Messiaen. Knowing that I played his music, André wanted me to do this recording and recommended me to Calliope. So you had performed Messiaen’s works before the prospect of this recording came up . . . Yes, almost all of them. After the Paris Conservatoire, in 1959/60, I wanted to take a kind of sabbatical year and I accepted the post of organist at Baccarat in the Meurthe-et-Moselle département . This small, calm, quiet parish brought me closer to my family (I come from Lorraine) and gave me time for personal work. I had some piano and organ students and an instrument atmy disposal. Quite a humdrumone, actually, but it did allowme to work through a large portion of Messiaen’s music. I got my wife Bernadette (whom I met in Baccarat . . . so thanks to Messiaen, to some extent!) to dictate the pieces to me so that I could transcribe them into Braille.