LDV49.1

58 MESSIAEN_THE ORGAN WORKS So here we are at the end of June 1972: you go to Geneva for the first recordings. How did the sessions go? Calliope wanted the records released quickly. So we needed to move fast . . . I wasn’t able to work with Messiaen at that time and only told him about the recording once it was already finished. In a way, I don’t regret that: I tell myself that from the moment a composer hands his music over to you, it no longer entirely belongs to him . . . We spent about ten nights in a row (with just one day off) recording everything. André Isoir was the producer, and he was the one who advised me to use the Metzler organ in Geneva Cathedral. I trusted him completely, to the point of coming there without having tried out the instrument first. And I don’t regret it! Which Messiaen pieces are your favourites? The Livre d’orgue and the Messe de la Pentecôte . I tend to think those are hismost accomplished pieces. It’s the radical, absolute side that fascinates me. And also a certain classicism. In the Livre d’orgue , almost all the pieces unfold with just a single registration, with the divisions defined once and for all at the beginning. It’s music that takes risks . . . Of course, I also like the other pieces, even if the last two cycles appeal to me a bit less.