Description

FIRST EDITION.

Catalogue of the tribute exhibition and concert series presenting the composer's complete works in November and December 1978.

SENT AUTOGRAPHICALLY SIGNED to Jean Maheu, on a loose leaf:

"To Jean Maheu,
thanks to whom the magnificent
of concerts was made possible
a token of my immense gratitude for everything you've done for me.
what he has done for me and my music,
and saying:
thank you ! with all my heart ...
Olivier Messiaen
27 February 1979".

A senior civil servant, Jean Maheu was notably President of Radio France and the Centre Georges Pompidou. At the time of this exhibition, he was Director of Music, Lyric Art and Dance at the French Ministry of Culture and Communication; he also wrote a short introductory text for the catalogue: " [?] An exceptional tribute if ever there was one: never in the history of French music, and probably never in the history of the world, has a composer been offered, during his lifetime, by the authorities of his country wishing to honour him, the opportunity to hear his complete works. […]"

Nice provenance.