Indispensable recordings 27.07.2024. Proms Composer 2: Messiaen

[Pulcinella]

Record Review, Saturday 27 July 2024
1.15 pm
BBC Proms Composer Olivier Messiaen

Gillian Moore joins Andrew to discuss five indispensable recordings of BBC Proms Composer Messiaen and explains why you need to hear them.

Composer, organist, hugely influential teacher and ornithologist, Olivier Messiaen was one of the major composers of the 20th century, not only in his native France but internationally. Messiaen's profound Catholic faith and birdsong often inform his individual and instantly recognisable music, from epic orchestral and organ works to chamber music and song.

[smittims]

I'm not a Messiaen specialist but I acknowledge his remarkable originality and I enjoy hearing his music occasionally. So I don't know enough about the range of recordings , particularly the recent ones, and it's hard to avoid just listing my favourites.

But surely pride of place must go to his own recordings of some of his organ works made on the Cavaille-Coll instrument in the Eglise de la Saint-Trinite. I'd add Antal Dorati's pioneering Chronochromie and a Quatuor with Erich Gruenberg, Gervase de Payer, William Pleeth and Michel Beroff. And of course Ozawa's Toronto Turangalila.

[Pulcinella]

I struggle with 'indispensable' and would prefer something more allied to 'pioneering', 'formative', or 'revelatory'.
With that categorisation, his own recordings must have a place (though I think the Trinité organ was a bit ropey at times), and in addition to the Ozawa Turangalîla and the Quatuor recordings that smittins mentions I might add Dorati's Transfiguration, Simon Preston's Nativité (to get such sounds from Westminster Abbey's organ!), and the Sony Boulez Couleurs and Et expecto. But that's to ignore the piano music (Vingt régards, Visions de l'Amen, Catalogue des oiseaux). So only five? Quite a challenge.

[oliver sudden]

Oh dear, we’ve gone from Verdi in whom I’m not hugely interested to Messiaen where getting it down to five is practically impossible! I might have to muse for a bit.

For some reason it’s the historical recordings that particularly seem to fit the word ‘indispensable’ for me. I’m not sure that the performance tradition (even, or maybe especially, Messiaen’s influence on it) has been especially kind to some of the pieces. Over time he seemed to want things slower and slower and more exaggerated, to the point where some pieces end up not being able to handle the strain. And so often it’s really stimulating to go back to how the pieces sounded when he wrote them.

So for me it’s things like the first recording of Canyons (Georges Barboteu the only hornist to use piston valves and thus the only one to render those weird waverings properly), the premiere of St François, Messiaen and Bunlet performing Harawi, Baudo’s Et Exspecto, the Désormière Petites Liturgies, the French premiere of Turangalîla, Messiaen’s recording of the Quatuor, Loriod’s first Vingt Regards, the premiere of Oiseaux exotiques, the Neumann Reveil des oiseaux… and even restricting myself to those I’m in double figures.

And I can’t possibly do without Latry’s Apparition de l’église éternelle, just because on April 14 2019 I did the Paris marathon and afterwards wandered around Notre Dame marvelling at it all, and then on April 15 I caught the train home, with after a certain point a stream of incoming texts telling me Notre Dame was on fire. So, much of that evening was spent listening to that particular Latry recording and bawling my eyes out.

[Pulcinella]

Even BBC MM has already produced 6 cover CDs that feature his music.

MESSIAEN	Cinq rechants	BBC Singers / Cleobury
MESSIAEN	La Nativité du Seigneur	Naji Hakim (organ)
MESSIAEN	L'Ascension	BBC Scottish SO / Jurowski
MESSIAEN	O sacrum convivium!	BBC Singers / Cleobury
MESSIAEN	Quartet for the End of Time	Collins (clarinet) / van Keulen (violin) / Watkins (cello) / Vogt (piano)
MESSIAEN	Turangalîla Symphony	Murara / Tchamkerten / BBCNOW / Fischer

[LMcD]

Record Review, Saturday 27 July 2024
1.15 pm
BBC Proms Composer Olivier Messiaen

Gillian Moore joins Andrew to discuss five indispensable recordings of BBC Proms Composer Messiaen and explains why you need to hear them.

Composer, organist, hugely influential teacher and ornithologist, Olivier Messiaen was one of the major composers of the 20th century, not only in his native France but internationally. Messiaen's profound Catholic faith and birdsong often inform his individual and instantly recognisable music, from epic orchestral and organ works to chamber music and song.

I have the same number of recordings of works by Verdi and Messiaen. 2 x 0 = 0

[Mandryka]

Catalogue d'oiseaux - Jocy de Oliveira
St Francis - Lothar Zagrosek
Banquet Céleste - Jon Gillock
La Rousserolle Effarvatte -- Peter Serkin
Couleurs de la Cité Céleste - Rattle
20 Regards - Eugeniusz Knapik

[teamsaint]

A bit off topic, but at the request of the host, here is an example of what the Arts Council used to do.



On the same track ( off piste) this was a good example of a not universally popular but interesting approach to a work.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/24/los-angeles-philharmonic-gustavo-dudamel-review-messiaen-barbican

I'd be interested in views on preferred recordings of Visions de L'Amen

[Pulcinella]

Thanks to ts for posting that picture: I have problems when I try myself.

I know I've mentioned that concert (Sheldonian, Oxford, on 21 February 1985, I now discover) before, and I was pleased to unearth the programme recently.
I had a big poster framed (Athena clip style: remember them?) on my college room wall for a while.
The artist is not mentioned.

[Pulcinella]

...

I'd be interested in views on preferred recordings of Visions de L'Amen

A bit surprised that no-one has responded to this request from ts.
A quick search on the Presto site shows many composer/Loriod options (surely not all the same performance), which must be of some importance, but a version that I thought would be worth investigating is the Hyperion release (now thankfully streamable) with Stephen Osborne and Martin Roscoe.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7932712--messiaen-visions-de-lamen

[smittims]

I've always been content with the Ogdons' barnstorming version on an old Argo LP, reissued in a Decca box including some other favourites such as Dorati's pioneer recording of la Transfiguration and Noelle Barker and Robert Sherlaw Johnson in the song cycles. .

[Mandryka]

I'd be interested in views on preferred recordings of Visions de L'Amen

Peter Serkin/Yuji Takahashi

[teamsaint]

Thanks for those suggestions, all of which I have managed to find online, and will try to get round to shortly. I have, de Leeuw/ Bon and Hill/ Frith.

[Opinionated Knowall]

I've always been content with the Ogdons' barnstorming version on an old Argo LP, reissued in a Decca box including some other favourites such as Dorati's pioneer recording of la Transfiguration and Noelle Barker and Robert Sherlaw Johnson in the song cycles. .

Absolutely with you on the Ogdens in Visions de l'Amen. Barnstorming is the word! Worth hearing the new Barbara Hannigan/Bertrand Chamayou recordings of Poemes pur Mi and Harawi, along wiht an oddity, La mort du nombre. I grew up with, and still love, Jane Manning in these pieces.

[silvestrione]

I don't listen to as much Messiaen as I should, but Oiseaux Exotiques with Yvonne Loriod, Vaclav Neuman and the Czech Phil has long been one of my favourite recordings of anything, since I had the LP with its beautiful cover art..
The other work I love and listen to is Chronochromie in the Boulez/Cleveland version, narrowly ahead of the Benjamin or Cambreling. I love the Vingt Regards, but cannot separate Loriod, Aimard, Osborne, etc

I would love to know Macropoulos's five...or is he doing it on the R3?

Edit, no of course, Gillian Moore