What better way is there to spend a rainy autumn Saturday in New York than listening to music? The live kind, that is... After spending the early afternoon at Carnegie Hall's Leonard Bernstein Discovery Day (more on that in another post), I walked over to St. Thomas for the fifth of John Scott's Messiaen organ recitals. Today's concert consisted of a single work: 1969's Méditations Sur Le Mystère de la Saint Trinité, which Messiaen wrote for the 100th anniversary of La Trinité in Paris. The music - like much of Messiaen's output - vacillated between tranquil and terrifying, but with spectral, almost psychedelic textures that sounded like something his student Stockhausen might write. By the time Scott reached the final meditation with its dense, grinding crescendo, I could hardly believe an hour and fifteen minutes had passed. Oh well, at least with music, you have a record of where your time's gone.

If you haven't yet been to any of Scott's Messiaen recitals, do not miss next Saturday's final concert, which features a complete performance of his 1984 masterpiece Livre du Saint Sacrament. If it even comes close to the experience I had in Paris this past May, it will be well worth your two hours.