Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Started by bhodges, January 03, 2008, 09:35:19 AM

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lescamil

Quote from: Muzition on September 16, 2011, 01:11:53 PM
I saw Turangalila live Wednesday night, and it was one of the greatest concert experiences of my life! I loved it all, from the bold brass chord to the delicate flute solos, from the eerie electronic swoop of the ondes martenot to the thrilling climaxes punctuated by the tam-tam.

It was played extremely well by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kent Nagano.  I'm so happy to have heard it!

Who were the pianist and ondes martenot player?
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Muzition

Angela Hewitt (Piano), Jean Laurendeau (Ondes Martenot)

lescamil

Wow, I can only imagine Angela Hewitt playing Turangalila. I heard her Hyperion CD and didn't like it at all, but Turangalila is a completely different thing altogether. I'd be curious to see how she does it.
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snyprrr

Quote from: Muzition on September 16, 2011, 01:11:53 PM
I saw Turangalila live Wednesday night, and it was one of the greatest concert experiences of my life! I loved it all, from the bold brass chord to the delicate flute solos, from the eerie electronic swoop of the ondes martenot to the thrilling climaxes punctuated by the tam-tam.

It was played extremely well by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kent Nagano.  I'm so happy to have heard it!

The cd with the Berliners is 'live', and it is spectacular.

snyprrr

Quote from: toucan on September 08, 2011, 03:14:17 PM
Chronochromie, with Reveil des Oiseaux and Sept Haikai, is one of Messiaen's most accomplished & well constructed compositions. It is as free from the excessive sweetness that occasionally mars his otherwise great pieces of the 1940's, as it is from the grandiloquence of his latter work.  It is composed of an Introduction, 2 Strophes and 2 Antistrophes, an Epode, and a Coda. The second Strophe and the second Antistrophe are subtle modifications of the first, while the Coda recapitulates and transforms the Introduction. The Epode created quite a stir - and even a scandal - when it was first presented to the public: it is written for 18 soli chords (12 violins, 4 altos and two cellos), each of which represents a bird song, each of which has a theme and a rhythm that is independent from all the others: exceedingly difficult for the musicians to carry out, as from inside the orchestra they hear only an anarchy of unrelated sounds, while the public hears an overall harmony comparable to what nature-lovers hear, when at the beginning of spring or at sun-rise during the rest of the season, many species of birds sing together.

Though Messiaen does not believe in or practice chance, Chronochromie might fit well on a CD with a piece from Lutoslawski's maturity, as the overall effect of the Epode is comparable to the ad libitum passages in Lutoslawski's music.

As always with Messiaen, Boulez is highly recommendable. Manual Rosenthal's recording (in the Ades "Musique de Notre Temps box) has documentary value & Karl Anton Rickenbacker's is workmanlike.





Hearing Chronochromie for, what I think, is the first time (at least all the way through). It definitely shot into the Winner'sCircle, along with Turangalila, as my fav Messiaen. I think it sounds very much like a really polished Late Xenakis,... I just haven't heard Messiaen so... fluid? You really do sense the 'time' and 'color' aspects, and how they relate. It is also no as homogenous as I thought (like Late Messiaen): it has great sonic complexity.

I also don't think I've heard 'The City On High' before,... that's a really four-square type of piece, very 'stained glass' sounding,... again, not as clanky as I thought it was going to be.

This is that Boulez/Cleveland/DG disc. I'm quite impressed by the package, Et Exspecto is a piece I'll have to become reacquainted with: I'm not sure how I feel about it (does it really need to be played in a mountain in order to impress me?).

But I'm really jazzed about Chronochromie.

Muzition

I'm looking for the sheet music for a piece for clarinet and piano by Messiaen.  The piece is called "Chant Dans Le Style Mozart". Can anyone help me track down the sheet music for it?

snyprrr

I have really been enjoying Messiaen since we became reintroduced a few months ago. I got:

Turangalila/Nagano
Eclairs/Rattle
Canyons/Chung
Chronochromie-Exspecto/Boulez

Just these four have sent me on a galactic vacation. I am more open to OM's harmonies than before (about 15 years ago), and I'm just so surprised that everything I had been looking for was right there in the Turangalila, and Chronochromie.

I'm just lifting up OM. I had no idea I was going to like his music so much at this time. All four cds get lots of play, and are becoming go-tos. His vision is pretty universal.

Just a shout out! ;)

snyprrr

Just got back from the library with

Chung/DG 3 Liturgies, Cite Celeste, Hymn

Visions/Amen New Albion/Double Edge

Vingt Regards Ogdon/Decca



Already I'm not liking the Double Edge (I think I've listened to this one before). Either I just don't like the music of Visions, or I'm going to need a muuuch more detailed performance and/or recording.

The Chung cd is nice enough, but, for my purposes I'm not smitten.

Haven't listened to JO yet.

lescamil

The best recording of Visions de l'Amen is this one:

[asin]B00030EROC[/asin]

You will not hear a more technically sound or musically detailed recording of the work. Osborne and Roscoe (the latter especially) are both technical monsters, especially in the breakneck finale.
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snyprrr

Quote from: lescamil on October 12, 2011, 05:52:00 PM
The best recording of Visions de l'Amen is this one:

[asin]B00030EROC[/asin]

You will not hear a more technically sound or musically detailed recording of the work. Osborne and Roscoe (the latter especially) are both technical monsters, especially in the breakneck finale.

Thanks,...

Was listening to the Ogdon Vingt Regards. At first I thought I wasn't really liking the music, but then I started to think this is an old recording and the piano isn't really spectacular. Is it Aimard here? There's so much opportunity for the actual instrument to speak here.



I think I've come to my end with Messiaen, but, already I've got soooo much with just a few works. I think it definitely depends on which recordings you get here.

eyeresist

QuoteAPPARITION OF THE ETERNAL CHURCH (film review)

"Apparition of the Eternal Church," a fascinating documentary by Paul Festa, takes its name from the title of a terrifyingly intense organ work by Olivier Messiaen. The film uses a unique method to study a fascinating question: what is going on in people's minds when they listen to music? What is different about the way that different people listen, and what, if anything, is similar?
...
Festa asked a large cross section of people, of diverse ages, genders, ethnicities, and levels of musical education, to listen to this piece on headphones, and he filmed them listening, asking them to describe their experience as they listen. At first, I doubted that this method would reveal anything interesting, since it is so hard to simultaneously listen, analyze, and verbalize one's experience, but the results are actually highly illuminating, and provide a wonderful glimpse into the way that different people hear music.
...
Surprisingly, the film ends up making a powerful argument for the value of musical education. The music is so powerful that it has a strong effect on all the listeners. But the film makes clear that those persons who are well educated about musical form and about musical history have a much richer and more multi-dimensional experience than those who lack this education. The less educated listeners have no context in which to place what they are hearing, and they are overwhelmed and irritated by the experience. They have no vocabulary to help them understand their responses, so they often end up rejecting or dismissing the music. The more musically knowledgeable ones, on the other hand, have the same spectrum of emotional and physical responses as everyone else, but they are more able to enjoy the music because they can place it in the context of a world of knowledge and culture.
...
Festa is investigating a key question about musical aesthetics, and he has invented a methodology to study it which provides very illuminating results. His brilliant use of editing, and his skill as an interviewer, allow the viewer to have many insights into the varieties of musical experience.

MDL

#271
Quote from: snyprrr on September 20, 2011, 05:40:27 PM

I'm really jazzed about Chronochromie.

Chronochromie may be fairly short by Messiaen's standards, but it must be one of his most impressive creations. Perhaps the lack of Messiaenic sprawl adds to its impact. I was recently surprised when the number of recordings of Chronochromie was brought to my attention, but I'm very happy with my two complete recordings (Dorati/BBCSO/Argo and Boulez/CO/DG) and a snatch of Hans Rosbaud on a compilation.

Edit: number... was, not number... were. I'm under the weather with a virus.


darkmatter

Very much a fan of his Organ works have been since my early Teens, but now exploring his Orchestral catalogue as well, Looking for a recommended version on CD of his Turangalîla-Symphonie. I have the Decca Thibaudet reading thus far :)

darkmatter

Quote from: James on May 11, 2011, 06:18:08 PM
ORGAN MUSIC
Messiaen was the twenthieth century's most daring and original composer of organ music. His earliest published work, Le banquet celeste (The Heavenly Banquet, 1928), written for the Cavaille-Coll instrument at Saint-Trinite, attempts to depict the mystery of the Eucharist by building up of near-static legato chords which are punctuated by a pedal melody representing Christ's blood dripping from the cross. La Nativite du Seigneur (1936), nine meditations on Christ's Nativity, is even more adventurous, decking the composer's melodic and harmonic experimentalism - inspired for the first time by Indian music - with a glittering array of aural effects. It closes with an ecstatic toccata, "Dieu parmi nous" (God Amoung Us), in which modal themes underpinning the whole cycle explode into frenetic celebration.

Messiaen's final masterpiece, the sprawling Livre du Saint Sacrement (1984), was honed during his weekly improvisations at La Trinite. It's eighteen sections, which return to the subject of the Eucharist, incorporate birdsong, Indian melody and a host of other esoteric devices, the work's vast silences and sustained chords assembling a sound-world never previously envisaged for the organ.

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Jennifer Bate is a passionate advocate of Messiaen's organ music, and her version of these early masterpieces - wonderfully recorded on the organ of Beauvais Cathedral - is highly persuasive. Part of a complete Messiaen organ set, it is also available as a single budget disc - a great place to start if you're exploring this repertoire for the first time.

[asin]B00005UOVM[/asin]
For a definitive account of the complete organ works, Olivier Latry's inspirational set is hard to beat. Latry's playing is technically flawless and beautifully paced, but it's his sense of daring that makes these performances so utterly gripping. The recently restored organ of Notre-Dame, Cavaille-Coll's masterwork, sounds tremendous.

The two sets that I have, I have the Bate on LP as well;  highly recommended :)

DieNacht

#275


"Catalogue des Oiseaux" /Jocy d´Oliveira Carvalho / vox 4LP

A terrific set, I think I prefer this to Hill and even Loriod, it has a very warm and often rather romantic approach to the music, reminding me of Loriod´s nuanced playing in "Des Canyons ..." with Marius Constant, my favourite Messiaen record.

Surprising one doesn´t hear more about this pianist, who is mainly a composer now; her piano technique seems very good,
http://www.musicabrasileira.org/reviewsinterviews/jocy.html

Karl Henning

Quote from: DieNacht on June 18, 2012, 04:58:04 AM
A terrific set, I think I prefer this to Hill and even Loriod, it has a very warm and often rather romantic approach to the music, reminding me of Loriod´s nuanced playing in "Des Canyons ..." with Marius Constant, my favourite Messiaen record.

Tangentially: the same Marius Constant who wrote titles music for The Twilight Zone? Small world . . . .
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

DieNacht

#277
Quote from: karlhenning on June 18, 2012, 05:20:01 AM
Tangentially: the same Marius Constant who wrote titles music for The Twilight Zone? Small world . . . .

Didn´t know that, but yes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZWI-dHtBF8

He wrote classical/orchestral works too, some of them recorded by Erato, as far as I recall.

Would Messiaen "work" in a science-fiction movie ? Probably so.

DieNacht

#278
By the way, judging from a recent entry on the www.birdforum.net where a fellow has been studying Messiaen´s sketchbooks, the composer initially didn´t write down the bird calls and songs during field work; he normally notated them by listening to records and LPs with bird songs, given to him by Darius Milhaud in the 1940s, "probably the Ludwig Koch series":


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Karl_Koch
http://www.wildlife-sound.org/journal/archive/koch.html
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/archival_sounds/2012/05/the-test-records-of-ludwig-koch.html

Mirror Image

New Messiaen orchestral recording coming out...

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