BaL 18.03.17 - Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

[makropulos]

Ross Pople's monogram in the "Cambridge Music Handbook" series is very good, too:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Messiaen-Quatuor-Temps-Cambridge-Handbooks/0521585384

Anthony Pople, not Ross!

[Bryn]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Time-Story-Messiaen-Quartet/dp/0801472970

[Antohony] Pople's monogram in the "Cambridge Music Handbook" series is very good, too:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Messiaen-Quatuor-Temps-Cambridge-Handbooks/0521585384

... both written by people who actually do know the score inside-out, rather than merely giving "every impression" of doing so.

...

I have the 2003 hardback edition of the Rischin but now note the 2006 paperback has additional content, so that's the one to go for.

[Nick Armstrong]

I found this BAL illuminating for the opportunity to hear the extracts, more than for the comments of the presenting double-act.

Like others, I think it's a crying shame that in those two movements, Mustonen and/or the engineers wrecked what would otherwise have been an instant purchase

"pree-face"

Quite...

.

OT footnote:

by the time lunchtime came it sounded like market day complete with screaming infant

More of the same next month, it would seem...



(though I'm not entirely sure what a 'listening café' is )

[teamsaint]

(though I'm not entirely sure what a 'listening café' is )

It'll be a development of the " Listening Bank" business concept........

[Pulcinella]

More of the same next month, it would seem...



(though I'm not entirely sure what a 'listening café' is )

The BaL from Spiritland is Mahler S2, Resurrection!

[Nick Armstrong]

The BaL from Spiritland is Mahler S2, Resurrection!

At least Gustav will do his best to drown out the squealing brats (and their infants )

[Nick Armstrong]

It'll be a development of the " Listening Bank" business concept........

There appears to be a dress code. And decent coffee...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anthony Pople, not Ross!

Of course! Apologies to both - I'm in training for my next R3 appearance.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Incidentally, makro - I'd be really interested in your opinion on this BaL (even - or maybe even especially - if it's on the lines that you found it difficult to work out which orifice I was talking from in my own comments thus far)

[makropulos]

Incidentally, makro - I'd be really interested in your opinion on this BaL (even - or maybe even especially - if it's on the lines that you found it difficult to work out which orifice I was talking from in my own comments thus far)

I'll certainly give it a listen - coincidentally I was in Namur (Belgium) last week talking about the Quartet at the conservatoire there (IMEP) before an outstanding performance of it by some of their students. Just back from a weekend in Yorkshire - so now heading towards the iPlayer.

[makropulos]

Ferney - I've now had a listen. The homepage for this broadcast doesn't bode well: "The quartet was premiered at the camp, outdoors and in the rain." "Outdoors" on 15 January 1941 in Silesia is nonsense. (There are photos of the interior of the theatre hut and that's where it was played - as the reviewer says in her intro). It's strange that no mention is made of Messiaen's own recording of the Quartet (OM on the piano; also with Etienne Pasquier, the original cellist) - it may not be available at the moment, but it's such an important document for anyone who wants to know how Messiaen himself played it (interesting to see how he treats his own metronome marking...). However, as to the broadcast, I thought a lot of the comments were very perceptive and I have to agree with her about Stoltzmann's sound on the Tashi recording in the 'Abîme des oiseaux'. It's years since I heard Bylsma and de Leeuw in the cello 'Louange', and was very glad to encounter it again. "Too slow" - AMc says that it is "way off" Messiaen's metronome marking, but in fact it is one of the very few that gets even close to semiquaver = 44, as Kate Molleson points out. The 'non legato' marking in the Danse de la fureur is, as others have pointed out, not in the instrumental parts. But the marking 'Décidé, vigoureux, granitique' applies to all of the players, and I don't reckon Tashi are really any of those here. So, again, I'm with Kate Molleson on this one too.

In short, and for what it's worth, I thought this was a very good BAL, and despite it being a double-headed effort, the points were well made. Glad that she found plenty to enjoy in the Hebrides Ensemble disc on Linn which I particularly like (I was also lucky enough to write the notes for it, and the rest of the programme is fascinating). I certainly can't argue with her final choice - it's a very fine performance that's too often been overlooked in the past.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well - what do I know?!

[Bryn]

I have the chosen recording in its 1988 box manifestation. Can anyone here comment on the quality of the transfer in the later box?

[Richard Barrett]

Well - what do I know?!

Likewise.

(I still like the Tashi recording best of the ones I've heard though!)

[makropulos]

I have the chosen recording in its 1988 box manifestation. Can anyone here comment on the quality of the transfer in the later box?

Bryn, my recollection is that it's more or less identical. The later box has a few foibles (a missing chord in the Catalogue d'oiseaux being the most irritating), but most of the transfers are pretty much the same as the original car battery format.