Olivier Messiaen - Transports de Joie (Jean-Claude Raynaud, Saint Sernin, Toulouse)

Well, it's only a day after Sunday within the Octave of Ascension so I think I can still call this festive! Olivier Messiaen's "Transports de joie d'une âme devant La Gloire du Christ, qui est la sienne" ["Outburst of Joy from a Soul Before the Glory of Christ Which Is Its Own Glory"], the third movement of the organ version of his early work L'Ascension.
This is taken from an old 1970 LP - long out of print - called "Modern French Organ Music" recorded by Jean-Claude Raynaud (b.1937) with André Isoir at the Basilica of Saint Sernin in Toulouse. This recording is doubly interesting in that it gives an insight into the sound of the 1888 Cavaillé-Coll organ at Saint-Sernin before the somewhat controversial restoration of 1996-97. I do not seek to take sides in that particular debate and ask that you please refrain from stirring up further controversy. Enjoy the music! A particular thank you must go to American theatre organist Llewellyn ("Lew") Williams (of the Organ Stop Pizza restaurant, Mesa, Arizona, with its four-manual, 78-rank Wurlitzer), who sent me this fantastic recording. I'm afraid I do not have any more of L'Ascension from this player: Raynaud only recorded this one track.
Details of the organ can be found here: mypipeorganhobb...

[@Diaphonician]

It is regrettable that Jean-Claude Reynaud did not record more. He was truly one of the best, most musical and colorful interpreters of Messiaen's thorny scores.

[@1807951]

Recorded before the rebuild... a masterful LP! 👌🏻

[@DeliciousManager]

So glad to see this LP posted. This was the first solo organ record I bought as a very young lad in the 1970s. I was aghast at the roar of the Cavaillé-Coll organ and have been a fan of those organs ever since. Messiaen just doesn't sound right on anything else.

[@columbamccann5367]

Bought it also in the 70's as a teenager and was bowled over by it. This is still my favourite recording of TDJ

[@degautaborg]

Great! It is fantastic that Messiaen could be so much part of tradition as well as totally novel, simultaneously!

[@jmeister321684]

From that legendary old '60's Turnabout LP ! I happen to have it as a treasure, even though the CC Contrebombarde 32 makes my needle jump !...

[@DeliciousManager]

Worth it, though, eh? :-)

[@timothytikker1147]

If you think that 32' is scary on LP, you should hear it in person! I have, and it's absolutely at the limit: any louder, and it'd be unmusical. And no, I'm not the squeamish sort!

[@hughcreighton9384]

I got this record in 1971 and think it is wonderful !!!

[@columbamccann5367]

Me too

[@janbondesson9244]

Thank you so much for sharing this... there is such a a pure an musically in this interpretation.

[@yunikhaean7317]

J'aime beaucoup également.

[@roberthoffhines5419]

You had me at St Sernin, but Raynaud is fabulous here! he gets the "strut" (terrible word but it's all I got) that Messiaen has that few players can bring out.

[@russedav5]

Thanks. Thrilling. I think "Transports of joy" would be better than "outburst" to express the ecstasy in the original word. How many other glorious recordings are trapped on LPs that will never make it to CSs! Sigh!

[@hugueshuddlestone780]

SUPERBE

[@stefanopigollo1014]

Good!! Very good!!!

[@AnOrganCornucopia]

Funny thing is, Status Quo are the only ones there I don't like - and their guitarist went to school in the same little town I live in. In my view, MFOM is mixed - some of it has dated very badly, I think, like the Langlais Evocation, while of course Messiaen endures...