László Borbély Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue D'oiseaux (2020)

This 18-CD set offers a comprehensive overview of Messiaen’s work in recordings made between 1963 and 2000 by the Warner labels Erato and Teldec. The performers include the composer himself, his wife the pianist Yvonne Loriod, Pierre Boulez, Marie-Claire Alain and other champions of Messiaen’s work.
As a tantalising and unique bonus, a full CD is devoted to an extensive interview with Messiaen recorded in 1988 in which he speaks, in French, about bird-song, colour, travel, religious faith, opera and the avant-garde. The richly illustrated 149-page booklet includes a full English translation of the interview as well as the composer’s detailed commentary about most of the works included in the set – with booklet editor Fabian Watkinson supplying information about the remaining works.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: not only is Messiaen’s epic meditation on the birth of Christ one of his most astonishing creations, it’s also one of the greatest solo organ pieces ever written. As with so much of his oeuvre, which spans all genres, the composer’s Catholicism is an unequivocal and indivisible part of his unique, instantly recognisable aesthetic. Indeed, it would be impossible to attribute, say, the Turangalîla-Symphonie, Catalogue d'oiseaux or Des Canyons aux étoiles to anyone else. And working my way through Sylvain Cambreling’s Hänssler box of the orchestral music for a future review, I was struck anew by the sheer range and consistency of Messiaen’s craft.

"A giant fresco, a kind of odyssey," is Bertrand Chamayou's description of Olivier Messiaen's piano masterwork, Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant-Jésus. Written in 1944, it is a monumental, mystical and iridescent sequence of 20 gazes or contemplations on the infant Jesus. Messiaen once wrote that "The drama of my life is that I have written religious music for an audience that has no faith." Bertrand Chamayou feels that the Vingt Regards "is a mystical rather than a religious experience… It arouses the same kind of awe as walking into a magnificent cathedral or seeing a glorious sunset. You feel that time stops." Chamayou first played the work in 2008, Messiaen's centenary year, but it has been part of his life since he was nine years old.

Borbely says “Why am I attracted to such ‘insurmountable peaks’ as Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge? I have always been captivated by researching complex musical structures and the regularities of music as language. Working on such a monumental and searchingly demanding work is challenging for me primarily because it is at this level that I can confront my own limits, my own “finiteness”. It becomes evident here that we, humans, can only aim at Perfection but will never be able to achieve it. This is the reason I never feel that my interpretation is “ready”. I would even abhor the idea. Why? Because one’s approach to a work will never be and can never be final. Bach’s music is also a continually forming, changing, infinite “game”, renewing itself again and again. Bach placed musical variability into divine invariability.

Olivier Messiaen - Rudolf Innig - Livre du Saint Sacrament
2xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 430 MB | Full Artwork: 187 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 317 0623-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1998
Genre: Classical | Style: Contemporary, Organ

"…Each gesture, each interpretive nuance – and there are numerous reminders that Innig’s performance is personal and distinct – serves to enhance Messiaen’s faith. So one cannot escape the devout mystery and probity that Rudolf Innig brings in such full measure to the Livre du Saint Sacrement. This performance promises to invigorate the soul." (Fanfare)