Sunday 18 January 2009: Messiaen for Beginners Part 1

Eric Tomb introduces the music of of Olivier Messiaen, whom he is just beginning to appreciate. In the first half of the program he presents the American organist Jon Gillock performing Messiaen's two major organ works from the 1930s, Diptyque (1930) and Les Corps Glorieux (1939) on the grand organ of the Church of La Sainte-Trinite, where Messiaen was organist from 1931 until his death in 1992.

In second half of the program he presents Messiaen's most famous work Quartet for the End of Time, which was first performed in a German prisoner of war camp in 1941. It's performed by Gil Shaham, piano; Paul Meyer, clarinet; Jian Wang, cello; and Myung-Whun Chung, piano.

To hear the first half of this program click here.

To hear the second half, click here.

To see more options, click here.

You can also get the entire program at the Classical Edge page at kvmr.org.