CCMusic.com

The seeds for Messiaen's final organ work were sown during an inspirational trip to Israel in 1984. Over the course of the following twelve months, the aging composer found improvisation leading him back to composition as he recovered from the exhausting labors that had produced his opera Saint Francois d'Assise. The Livre du Saint Sacrement became Messiaen's grand farewell to his own instrument, and Michael Bonaventure performs it from memory here on the Rieger organ at St Giles' Cathedral, whose true acoustic preserves the clarity of Messiaen's lines.