Apparition de l'église éternelle - favorite Messiaen organ piece?

Only have room for ten, so I'll put my top ten faves here.

For me, it's Apparition de l'église éternelle.

Tough choice, though, since they're all so wonderful and beautiful.

I had a chance a couple years ago to hear almost the full cycle of Messiaen organ works in a series of concerts at Riverside Church. Wonderful!

But for sheer stick-me-to-my-seat-awesomeness, it's Apparition de l'église éternelle.

And CDs just do not do his music justice at all. Really has to be in person, with an organ with 32 foot pipes.

Where are the DU classical music lovers?

I've only heard Livre de Saint Sacrament live, and of course it was magnificent. (I was up in the balcony, eye level with the big pipes, and the sound just rolled right over me. Magnificent!)

But my favorite? Usually it's Nativite du Seigneur. Sometimes it's Le Banquet Celeste, with that breathtaking bass note at the very end.

I think I have the sheet music to Apparition around someplace-- at least, I remember buying it at a library sale or some such thing. I never sat down and studied it, however-- I read real poorly anyway, and the score had a weird feature where the stem of an eighth note bifurcated and led to two different heads. (I think it was intended to be a cluster, but I wasn't sure. At the time I didn't have a recording of the piece to verify it, and I haven't encountered those pages since I got the piece on CD.)

I think it's interesting that Messaien sees himself as a melodist. I hear him as a sort of evangelical Varese. And I mean that in the fondest possible sense.

I do have the sheet music for appirition, and I was amazed it's only two pages long. Eighth notes get like a full second, and yes, lots of little clusters (though not technically called "clusters" in the modern music sense of cluster, there is a fair amount of dissonance, but good dissonance).

An evangelical Varese? Never thought of him that way, but yeah, there could be some similarity. I certianly wouldn't think of him as a melodist.

I've heard a lot of Messiaen, but I don't remember the specific titles.