Meditations sur le Mystere de la Sainte Trinite

My festival season just went high-brow! I attended 'Meditations sur le Mystere de la Sainte Trinite' this evening in St. Giles' Cathedral at 10.30pm. It's part of the 'Royal Bank Lates' season of events for a fiver, apparently aimed at attracting a younger crowd to the International Festival. Here's what the programme has to say about it,

Thomas Trotter performs Messiaen’s massive and deeply spiritual work for organ.

Drawing inspiration from bird song, plainsong and Eastern music and underscored by his devout Catholic faith, French composer Messiaen’s music for organ is amongst the most powerful and poignant music ever composed. This is a work that constantly changes mood and colour: from subtle shades and hues to bold contrasts that saturate the sound field.

Now, normally I wouldn't attend anything with 'meditations' in the title, especially when it is followed closely by 'mystere.' Just because I usually can't be bothered. But this evening's performance was actually, I'd say, good value. There were a few people who couldn't stand the 'bird song' inspired organ noise and left, but after a few sniggers at the unconventional sounds Mr. Trotter contrived the organ into making it was easy to listen along. I wouldn't say I was deeply involved in the music, my mind wandered a significant way, but it was a nice accompaniement to my study of the amazing architecture of St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. I resolved to one day build my own equilateral arch from stone.

Posted by Paul in International Festival Edinburgh at August 19, 2004 05:28 AM | 0 Comments