Olivier Messiaen’s Christmas Suite to be performed at St. Mary’s Basilica in Minneapolis

December 2, 2025 at 7:30PM 

Basilica of Saint Mary, 88 North 17^th Street, Minneapolis, MN

Instrument:  1949-2008 Wicks, Opus 3047 (84 ranks of pipes)
https://www.pipeorganlist.org/OrganList/data_mn/MN-MplsBasilica.html
 
On Tuesday, December 2, 2025 at 7:30PM, members of the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists will present a complete performance of one of the most evocative and memorable modern suites of Christmas music, La Nativité du Seigneur/The Birth of the Savior by Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992). 

Composed in 1935 at the age of 26, La Nativité du Seigneur is set of uncommonly evocative and atmospheric tone-paintings, and a testament to Messiaen’s Roman Catholic faith.  More than simple charming tunes, these pieces are mystical and provocative perceptions of aspects of the story of the birth of Jesus.  Some are vivid character portraits of personalities who participated in the pageant…the Virgin and Child (movement 1), the Shepherds (movement 2), the Angels (movement 6), and the Wise Men (movement 8).  Other panels deal with less tangible things, such as the concept of the ‘Eternal Purposes’ behind the Nativity (movement 3), ‘The Word’ made manifest (movement 4), and the inevitable profound and disturbing necessity of Jesus’s presence in the world when ‘Jesus Accepts Suffering’ on our behalf (movement 7).  The glorious conclusion to the suite is as surprising and brilliant as is the Christmas miracle itself.  Messiaen, with uncanny originality and urgency, creates a dramatic and unforgettable finale that embraces the extraordinary reality of ‘God Among Us’. 

At its premiere in February 1936, three of the composer’s organist friends shared the program.  In this performance, each movement of the suite will be performed by a different TCAGO member: 

1. La Vierge et l’Enfant/The Virgin and Child – Samuel Libra (Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Minneapolis)
2. Les Bergers/The Shepherds – Bill Chouinard (St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi)
3. Desseins Eternels/Eternal Purposes –Brian Carson (Nativity of Our Lord Church, Saint Paul)
4. Le Verbe/The Word – Laura Edman (1^st Presbyterian Church, Stillwater)
5. Les Enfants de Dieu/The Children of God – Isaac Drewes (Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis)
6. Les Anges/The Angels – Joseph Trucano (Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis)
7. Jésus Accepte la Souffrance/Jesus Accepts Suffering - Richard Gray (St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, Saint Paul)
8. Les Mages/The Magi – Nils Halker (St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, Saint Paul)
9. Dieu Parmi Nous/God Among Us – Catherine Rodland (St. Olaf College, Northfield)

Olivier Messiaen is perhaps the most compelling composer of religious music for organ after Bach, and one of the greatest and most admired of all 20^th century composers.  This suite for Christmas is, without question, the most often performed and most popular of all of his organ works. 

The Basilica and its pipe organ provide a near ideal setting and sonority for this compelling score, not unlike those of the composer’s own church in Paris, Eglise de la Sainte Trinité.