Jeanne Demessieux was born in 1921 in Montpellier, the youngest daughter of Madeleine Mézy and Étienne Demessieux, a high-ranking railway civil servant. She learned piano with her sister Yolande, who also introduced her to the organ, then entered the Montpellier Conservatory, winning first prize for piano at age eleven. Her family moved so that she could study at the Paris Conservatory, which she entered in 1933. She studied under Magda Tagliaferro, Jean and Noël Gallon, Henri Büsser, and Marcel Dupré, winning first prizes for harmony (1937), piano (1938), counterpoint and fugue (1939), and organ and improvisation (1941). She became the organ-master of the Saint-Esprit Church as early as 1933. She played frequently in Saint-Sulpice, and in 1962 she became organ-master of La Madeleine. Her phenomenal virtuosity and uncommon abilities (she knew over two thousand pieces by rote and could end a concert by improvising a symphony in four movements) launched an international career beginning in 1946, which saw her play over seven hundred concerts across Europe and the United States, all the way up to her early death at age forty-seven. Shortly before her passing, she had signed a contract to record Olivier Messiaen’s works for organ in their entirety. She also found the time to teach the organ – with great passion – in Nancy, Liège, Dublin, and Haarlem. And to compose. Alongside a few mélodies, piano pieces and works of chamber music (including a Sonata for violin and piano (1940)), she wrote pieces for organ: Nativité (1943-1944), Six Études (1944), Sept Méditations sur le Saint-Esprit (1945-1947), Triptyque (1947-1948), Douze Choral Préludes (1947), Te Deum (1957-1958), Prélude et Fugue en Ut (1964), six Répons (1962-1966), and Poème (1949) for organ and orchestra. Her works for organ have been recorded in their entirety. She also leaves behind La Chanson de Roland (1951-1956), an oratorio for solo mezzo soprano, choir, and orchestra.

– Florence Launay –

[Traduction en anglais : Raphaël Meyer]