Olivier Messiaen's Hymne au Saint Sacrement is now a different piece from when he first composed it in 1932: that original work was a casualty of the Second World War. Happily enough, however, Messiaen "rewrote" the piece from memory in 1947. He alone could know (and even he might not have) how much that reconstruction resembled or differed from the 1932 original—it may well be, as with Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto, which was lost to fire and rewritten ten years after its original date of composition, that the intervening years had a substantial impact on its language and structure.

If the Turangalîla-symphonie of 1946 - 1948 is the culmination of Messiaen's early work, the Hymne au Saint Sacrement is a vital peak of that period. But it is only since Messiaen's death in 1992 that the work, along with many of his others, has begun to make a charge at the repertoire; it is still relatively obscure.

The "Sacrement" of the title is the Holy Eucharist, a central feature in a religion about which Messiaen felt fundamentally joyful and energetic. The Hymne is likewise jubilant and, above all else, zestfully rhythmic (after all, this is Messiaen, the man who introduced the study of Eastern rhythms to the Paris Conservatoire). Two Presque lent sections, one near the beginning and one near the end, make a delightful change of texture: the large orchestra (triple woodwinds and brass) is reduced down to a handful of solo strings, all of whom save the concertmaster are muted. The work is built on firm but, of course, very chromatically-colored tonal ground; if at times the degree of tonal obfuscation is such that one starts to lose one's way, rest assured that the very end, which sparkles radiantly in B major, is as clear as can be.

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