The world of music has several examples of brilliance whose existance has been cut short, but few are as tragic as the young genius of Jehan Alain.

On the 20th of June, 1940, at the height of his creative powers, he was assigned to reconnoitre the German advance on the eastern side of Saumur and encountered a group of German soldiers at Le Petit-Puy. He attacked, but was killed following his refusal to surrender.

Coming from a family of organists, Jehan Alain began playing the organ publicly at the age of 11. In 1929 at the age of 18, Jehan composed his first piece for piano and over the course of the next 10 years he went on to compose around 130 pieces.

Marie-Claire Alain performs works written by her brother, on instruments used for their composition, or which inspired Jehan between 1930 & 1939. The organ of the Basilica of St Ferjeux was restored under the supervision of Jehan and his father, and the Alain family organ, in Romainmotier, Switzerland, is the one on which Jehan Alain refined all his  compositions.