LDV49.1

57 LOUIS THIRY Did you already have in mind the idea of a future recording? No, not at all! But I wanted to play these pieces in concert, which I did notably in concerts for the radio. In those days there were regular organ broadcasts. Gaston Litaize, who was in charge of producing these programmes, gave me the opportunity to play in them several times. How was Messiaen’s music – today a great repertory classic – perceived at that time? It was little played. Generally speaking, his music was still misunderstood. At concerts where I playedMessiaen, there were usually fewer people at the end than at the beginning!