Top 5 Favorite Messiaen Works

[Mirror Image]

OLIVIER MESSIAEN (1908 - 1992)



What are your Top 5 Favorite Messiaen Works? I may have to sit this out a bit as I'm finally connecting with the composer.

[EigenUser]

1. Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum
2. Trois Petites Liturgies
3. Turangalila-Symphonie
4. Des Canyons aux Etoiles
5. Oiseaux Exotiques

[Mirror Image]

1. Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum
2. Trois Petites Liturgies
3. Turangalila-Symphonie
4. Des Canyons aux Etoiles
5. Oiseaux Exotiques

Nice list, Nate. I don't know Oiseaux Exotiques yet, but will soon enough I'm sure. I'm actually listening to Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine now. Great stuff. Again, ethereal and mystical, but with some fascinating uses of rhythm.

[ptr]

Find it really hard to single out five as with any composer whose output is so even. But these are Messiaen works that I return to quite (regularly) often! It often puzzles me that myself not having any regard for religion at all, I often find myself drawn towards music written by "religious" individuals!

The five works:

La nativité du Seigneur (1935)

Harawi (1945)

Messe de la Pentecôte (1950)

La Transfiguration De Jesus Christ (1965-9)

Des canyons aux étoiles (1970-4)

/ptr

[North Star]

1. Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum
2. Trois Petites Liturgies
3. Turangalila-Symphonie
4. Des Canyons aux Etoiles
5. Oiseaux Exotiques

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.

Quite consistent, Nate. 

Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum
Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus
Des Canyons aux étoiles
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Turangalïla-symphonie

[EigenUser]

Quite consistent, Nate. 

Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum
Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus
Des Canyons aux étoiles
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Turangalïla-symphonie

And I didn't even look at my old list. I'm proud of myself!

I love some of the Vingt Regards -- 1, 6, 10, and 20 (in fact, I just finished orchestrating the 10th), but it is soooo long! I actually like Visions de l'Amen better (the one for two pianos).

[North Star]

And I didn't even look at my old list. I'm proud of myself!

I love some of the Vingt Regards -- 1, 6, 10, and 20 (in fact, I just finished orchestrating the 10th), but it is soooo long! I actually like Visions de l'Amen better (the one for two pianos).

It wouldn't be Messiaen if it wasn't 'soooo long'!
Hm, come to think of it, I might prefer Visions too. And I recall liking some of his organ works a fair bit.

[Mirror Image]

I suppose I can make a list, but it's going to be subject to change whenever I start getting my hands deep into the composer's oeuvre (in no particular order):

Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Des canyons aux étoiles
L'Ascension
Turangalila-Symphonie
Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine

[Maestro267]

1. Turangalîla-Symphonie
2. Des canyons aux étoiles
3. Éclairs sur l'au dela
4. La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jésus Christ
5. Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum

[Henk]

Can't always connect with Messiaen, how much I want.

I liked this disc when I first listened to it, but since then Messiaen never really hit me.

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This is a good disc as well:
[asin]B001EUB6RG[/asin]

Some short works are my favourites:
1 Les Offrandes oublieés
2 La Ville d'En-Haut
Longer works:
3 L'Ascension
4 Catalogue d'oiseaux
To complete:
5. Turangalila-Symphonie

Will revisit Messiaen the coming days.

[North Star]

A revision is in order...


Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum
Des Canyons aux Etoiles
Trois Petites Liturgies
Turangalila-Symphonie
Quatuor pour la fin du temps

[Henk]

Listening some Sept Hakai now from this set and really digging it :

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[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum
Truangalîla-Symphonie
Oiseux Exotiques
Sept Haikai
Éclairs sur l'au-delà

[Spineur]

1) Quatuor pour la fin du temps
2) Et expecto resurectionem morturum
3) La nativité du Seigneur
4) Chants de l'Amen
5) Chant dans le style de Mozart

"Le Quatuor pour la fin du temps" was composed during Messiaen deportation at  Görlitz (Silesie) in 1940.  In the same Stalag was the french cellist Etienne Pasquier.  They found also a clarinetist and a violinist to complete the quatuor (Messiaen was at the piano).  Pasquier Cello had only three strings (the C string was missing).  Messiaen would compose some part and they would all discover how it sounded whenever they could rehearse.  The work was first played at the stalag in front of 400 prisonners.  The french prisonners go eventually freed and Messiaen and Pasquier made it back in 1941.  I believe the hounting and erie atmosphere of this work comes from the circumstances when it was composed.

[EigenUser]

Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum
Truangalîla-Symphonie
Oiseux Exotiques
Sept Haikai
Éclairs sur l'au-delà

CoAG, have you heard Des Canyons aux Etoiles yet? I love that one even more than Eclairs.

[Chronochromie]

Aghhhh.....OK. Today:

Des canyons aux étoiles...
Catalogue d'oiseaux
Saint François d'Assise
Livre du Saint Sacrament
Éclairs sur l'au-delà...

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

CoAG, have you heard Des Canyons aux Etoiles yet? I love that one even more than Eclairs.

I think I've heard it once...so not enough times to let it really sink in. I love how Eclairs has Australian birdsong in it (but that isn't the only reason!!!!)

[SimonNZ]

How's it going getting tickets for the Aimard Vingt Regards, CoAG?

OT: maybe:

Catalogue D'Oiseaux
Éclairs sur l'au-delà...
Des canyons aux étoiles...
Couleurs de la Cité céleste
Quatuor pour la fin du temps

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

How's it going getting tickets for the Aimard Vingt Regards, CoAG?

I haven't made the purchase yet.....I plan on getting good seats....I'll be saving up!

[Abuelo Igor]

I believe the haunting and eerie atmosphere of this work comes from the circumstances when it was composed.

I felt a little disappointed when I found out that "Louange à l'immortalité de Jésus", the final movement of the piece and arguably its spiritual high point due to the sense of release that it conveys, had already been written as far back as 1930, since it is basically a reworking of the second half of "Diptyque", an organ work that presents two contrasting arrangements, first in a major and then in a minor key, of the same musical material. I don't think that detracts from its beauty or its merit, but, for me, it kind of debunks the myth that all the music in the piece was a direct result of and an answer to the concentration camp experience.