Top 5 Favorite Messiaen Works

[EigenUser]

Had to be done.

Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum -- Powerful, chilling music.
Turangalila-Symphonie -- Yes it's massive, bloated, and even Messiaen called it excessive. But it's so damn good.
Trois Petites Liturgies -- Personally I think it is a crucial work in understanding the rest of his output.
Oiseaux Exotiques -- Great fun, light, cheerful.
Des Canyons aux Etoiles -- wide open spaces, bright red rocks, echos of distant desert creatures.

[Dax]

Regard de l'esprit de joie
Fetes des belles eaux
Canteyodjaya
8 preludes
Quatuor pour la fin du temps

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Turangalila-Symphonie
Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Les Corps Glorieux
Eclairs sur l'Au-Dela

[Trout]

Chronochromie
Des canyons aux étoiles...
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine
Turangalîla-Symphonie

[Ken B]

Had to be done.

Trois Petites Liturgies -- Personally I think it is a crucial work in understanding the rest of his output.

That's #1

Vingt Regards/Visions of the Amen tied

Quator

I cede my fifth choice to Mirror Image, who must now pick SIX favorite Messiaen works.

[Ken B]

Turangalila-Symphonie -- Yes it's massive, bloated, and even Messiaen called it excessive. But it's so damn good.
Des Canyons aux Etoiles -- wide open spaces, bright red rocks, echos of distant desert creatures.

Do I have the pet for you!

[Mirror Image]

I only have one favorite Messiaen work: L'ascension. This composer still baffles me, but yet I continue to buy more recordings of his music. I suppose I'm waiting for that 'breakthrough' and once this happens, I'll certainly be armed and ready.

[EigenUser]

That's #1

Joking aside, care to elaborate on your enjoyment of the liturgies but resentment of Turangalila? It's not a criticism of your tastes. I'm just curious because they are so similar.

Canyons is definitely a little bit too long. I think that the two piano solo movements are unnecessary (especially Le Moqueur Polyglotte, which is over 10 minutes). But I also think it has some incredibly sublime music in it and I love the use of extended techniques.

I only have one favorite Messiaen work: L'ascension. This composer still baffles me, but yet I continue to buy more recordings of his music. I suppose I'm waiting for that 'breakthrough' and once this happens, I'll certainly be armed and ready.

Have you heard Les Offrandes Oubliees, Hymne au Saint-Sacrement, Le Tombeau Resplendissant, and Poemes pour Mi? These are all early orchestral works (1930's) that are in an idiom similar to L'ascension.

[Cato]

Have you heard Les Offrandes Oubliees, Hymne au Saint-Sacrement, Le Tombeau Resplendissant, and Poemes pour Mi? These are all early orchestral works (1930's) that are in an idiom similar to L'ascension.

Excellent recommendations!

Chronochromie is an acquired taste: I heard an early recording many moons ago (Antal Dorati conducting, and just shook my head at first.  Later I found the score in a university library, and still just shook my head!  I understand the ideas behind the music, but am still not sure that the fragmentary nature of the piece works.

[EigenUser]

Chronochromie is an acquired taste: I heard an early recording many moons ago (Antal Dorati conducting, and just shook my head at first.  Later I found the score in a university library, and still just shook my head!  I understand the ideas behind the music, but am still not sure that the fragmentary nature of the piece works.

Woah, that's my story regarding that piece, too (except I have a Boulez CD)! I still have the score checked out, but I can't seem to make heads or tails of it. I enjoy some parts of it, though.

[Cato]

Woah, that's my story regarding that piece, too (except I have a Boulez CD)! I still have the score checked out, but I can't seem to make heads or tails of it. I enjoy some parts of it, though.

The claim of "notating a waterfall" made me skeptical: two sheets rotating against each other on drums will work just as well.  All of the "color-chord-charts" and the pre-composed mathematics used in the piece also made me skeptical.  All right, fine: but what is the result?  Mahler famously used that 10-note chord in his last symphony, albeit in a still tonal context.  The massive chords in Chronochromie - to my not-untrained ear - are blurs that become monotonous, discernible by some sounding deeper, some sounding higher.  For "color-chords" they often are smears of gray, like taking eight crayons together and scribbling on paper.  You might get a rainbow, but you might not.

One solution would have been to arpeggiate the color-chords.  Anyway, as you say, there are enjoyable parts with the polyphony in the bird-calls.   

[Mr Bloom]

Does no one like Saint François d'Assise? With its 1200 pages score, it's still somewhat the crown achievement of Messiaen's oeuvre.

I would have to re-listen to some of his peices to make a true list of favorites. His works are so damn long that I don't play them that often.
Yet, his organ works are probably among my favorites (especially Livre d'orgue and Livre du saint sacrement)

[Cato]

Does no one like Saint François d'Assise? With its 1200 pages score, it's still somewhat the crown achievement of Messiaen's oeuvre.

I was wondering about that: I have heard only excerpts.  I assume you are recommending it?

[Karl Henning]

I think I have it sitting around somewhere, but, no, I haven't gotten around to listening to it.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I think I have it sitting around somewhere, but, no, I haven't gotten around to listening to it.

I have the CDs and tried, but it all sounded the same. Then again, I'd have a tough time coming up with a single favorite Messiaen work, let along five. The Quatuor perhaps, and I've endured that huge bloated garish vulgar piece of brothel music twice in concert, as well as the Vingt Regards (which I would have preferred had he cut them down to Dix Regards, or even Deux).

[Karl Henning]

Give at least ten of the Regards to Broadway!

[Mr Bloom]

I was wondering about that: I have heard only excerpts.  I assume you are recommending it?

I'm not sure I would "recommend" it. It is a must-listen for anyone who likes Messiaen (or for anyone who he's interested in post-war opera), because it contains some of Messiaen's best writing and most beautiful music ever, and it's the culmination of everything he's done, the work inside which he put all of how he saw the world and all his musical technics, but it's also very long (almost 4 hours), slow and contemplative, with some scenes being almost works in themselves.
So, it's great, yes, but one must be prepared for it...

The Metzmacher DVD could be useful : the staging is nice, the singing good and the music well played, and at least you've got the visuals.

Isn't that Boulez who called Messiaen's music "brothel music"? If Messiaen's music is brothel music, let's not say what Boulez's music could be considered as...

[EigenUser]

Does no one like Saint François d'Assise? With its 1200 pages score, it's still somewhat the crown achievement of Messiaen's oeuvre.

I would have to re-listen to some of his peices to make a true list of favorites. His works are so damn long that I don't play them that often.
Yet, his organ works are probably among my favorites (especially Livre d'orgue and Livre du saint sacrement)

I like it and I usually don't like opera very much. I have heard the whole thing, but not all at once.