Performing Messiaen: insights into his working and creative life

by Morwenna Brett Roderick Chadwick takes questions at the RCO Organ Forum 2017 How did Olivier Messiaen combine the creative life with the conventions and strictures of his role as organist?  And how can that help us understand and perform his music? In this year’s RCO Organ Forum at the Royal Academy of Music, Artistic Director Robert Sholl brought together academic and performance experts to answer these questions, in a celebration of Messiaen’s work held in this, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the composer's death. Messiaen as organist Thomas Lacôte is the current titulaire du Grand Orgue…