Yvonne Loriod

The New York Times is reporting the Yvonne Loriod has passed away. Although perhaps best remembered as the wife of Olivier Messiaen, she was a tremendous artist in her own right. At the Paris Conservatoire, where she met Messiaen, she taught one of my favorite pianists, the incomparable Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

Loriod played the piano for the American premiere of Messiaen’s epic Turangalîla-Symphonie with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, along with Ginette Martenot playing ondes Martenot. She also premiered Pierre Boulez’s Structures, Book 2 along with Boulez himself in 1961.

Advertisement