Anne Page (organ)

Livre du Saint Sacrement - Messiaen

Messiaen's Livre du Saint Sacrement places unusual demands on the listener as well as on the performer. Written in 1984, its 18 pieces use a plethora of compositional techniques. In approximately 105 minutes of music, Messiaen drew on many of the resources which had preoccupied him in his earlier career, including modes of transposition and rhythm, birdsong and plainchant. However, the demands of this music lie less in its complexity than in its structural methods - almost every piece consists of short, contrasted sections - and in the fact that Messiaen's composition was shaped by mystical symbolism.

Over 150 years ago, Liszt, Berlioz and other composers of programmatic music agonised over whether to explain their compositions' extra-musical meanings. Most of them decided not to, because it encouraged banal thought. Not so with Messiaen. His detailed explanation, reproduced in the recital programme, seems essential for music which one minute treats birdsong in counterpoint and the next sets plainchant to cloying, sentimental harmonies.

Anne Page did an excellent job of translating registration designed for large French symphonic organs on to a smaller, essentially classical instrument. This and her rhythmic focus made her performance last Sunday evening unusually objective and persuasive.