L'Ascension.

For the Feast of the Ascension (which necessarily occurs on Thursday; none of this 'Ascension Sunday' business), here is some non-liturgical but undeniably sacred music: Olivier Messiaen's L'Ascension, an orchestral work in four movements written in 1932/33 and premiered in 1935. I am a fan of Messiaen, and perhaps I should post his music here more often. The performance heard here is taken from a concert of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Hugo Wolff, recorded on January 15, 2016. For those of us who mark the Ascension today, may the music of Messiaen help us to enter more fully into the mystery that we celebrate.