The CD production “Prisme: Olivier Messiaen et les années 30” was released by the Dutch Foundation “Promotion de la musique d’Olivier Messiaen et ses contemporains”. The recordings were made by D.E Versluis Classical Music Productions.

As the title suggests, Messiaen’s activities during the 1930 form the release’s focus. This period immediately followed the composer’s studies at the Paris Conservatoire (1919-1930), and was also the decade in which Messiaen married Claire Delbos (1906-1959).

A key motivation in bringing this project to fruition was the comparative obscurity of Delbos and her music, both in the Netherlands and France. Claire Delbos was a great violinist who also composed, among other things, organ works and songs. Her published organ works (Deux Pièces, Paraphrase and Parce, Domine) were recorded by Anton Doornhein. Musicologist Gijsbert Kok provides commentary on these pieces in the booklet.

Doornhein also performs works by friends of Messiaen from the Conservatoire and Schola Cantorum, including Georges Migot, André Jolivet (the seldom-heard Prélude Apocalyptique), Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, Jean Langlais and Messiaen’s organ teacher Marcel Dupré.

A second source of inspiration for this production was the collection of poems “L’âme en bourgeon” (The Soul in Bud) written by poet Cécile Sauvage (1883-1927) whilst pregnant with Olivier Messiaen. Two of these poems are depicted in improvisations by Arjan Versluis who makes use of Messiaen's Modes of Limited Transposition.

Versluis also improvises on a number of communion hymns including the well-known Gregorian chant “Adoro te devote” with its text by Thomas van Aquino (1225-1274). The Eucharist forms the third main theme behind this release, as it provided compositional inspiration for Messiaen, most especially during the 1930s.

The Dutch theologian Professor Rinse Reeling Brouwer provides his thoughts on communion and the Eucharist in an essay, intriguingly entitled: “Adoro te devote: a hymn to be prayed by Calvinists too”. Appropriately, Hans van Gelder’s programme includes Messiaen’s first organ work, “Le banquet céleste”.

“Prisme: Olivier Messiaen et les années 30” offers an evocation in of a tumultuous period in French musical history in both sound and words, and a document of Messiaen and his beloved Claire (de “Mi” in the song cycle “Poèmes pour Mi”) in partiular. In addition to two beautiful CDs recorded on a famous organ, the production also features an extensive booklet containing 100 pages of colour photos and texts in three languages. A must for every organ-lover!

Available from www.deversluis.nl or via a specialist music shop.

Hans van Gelder, Barendrecht, March 2011