Messiaen

> Strange to encounter myself 45 years later. I was 15 when I ran away from school to Paris -no longer a boy, but not yet a man- hoping to study with Messiaen - all of whose organ music I could play by then. I would go to listen to him improvising after High Mass at La Trinité, but there were so many organ-fanciers swarming round the organ loft door that I couldn't face putting myself forward among so many eager & ambitious competitors for his attention. Not really knowing what to do I took the advice of the Australian concierge in the hotel where I was staying & went to Brive La Galliarde. There I lived out a half life for some time, not communicating with anyone, until my money was running out & then, finally, I capitulated & called my parents - who were of course worried sick.
> My father came out to see me & this was the picture he took perhaps just after a lunch which included trufle – whose appeal then & subsequently eluded me as completely as the passing fashion for Beaujolais nouveau.