Louis Henry Nicolas Thiry (15 February 1935[1] – 27 June 2019)[2] was a French concert organist, composer and pedagogue. He was professor of organ at the Regional Conservatoire in Rouen and played in concerts internationally. His many recordings include the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in 1972, which received several awards and led the composer to describe him as "an extraordinary organist".[3] Thiry was blind.
He took part in many international festivals, including Lille, the Besançon Festival, the Festival of Paris, Haarlem, Venice and the 1982 Messiaen Festival in Moscow.[5]
Louis Thiry is an extraordinary organist. An accomplished virtuoso, an all-round musician, with unequalled memory and skill: he may be classed among the heroes of music (he has given several fine performances of my most difficult organ works -in particular my Messe de la Pentecôte). All those who have heard and all those who will hear Louis Thiry can but admire him.[3]
The recording was awarded the Prize of the Président of the Republic, the Shock of Le Monde de la musique[6] and the Grand Prix du Disque of l'Académie Charles Cros).[2] It was reissued in 2018.[2][3] In Thiry's obituary in Le Monde, Marie-Aude Roux described the recording as "still considered one of the great achievements in the history of records" ("toujours considéré comme l'une des grandes réalisations de l'histoire du disque").[2]