Messiaen

Éclairs sur l’au-delà… is the latest great work composer by Olivier Messiaen. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its anniversary, this astounding masterpiece could never be heard by its creator, who died a few months before the premiere. Involving a giant orchestra, this piece could rarely be recorded, though it encapsulates Messiaen’s aesthetics, with its mystical visions and evocative sense of color. Simon Rattle’s hypnotic rendition is undoubtedly one of the greatest.

"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.

Franz Liszt and Olivier Messiaen don't usually spring to mind as similar figures, let alone as an expected pairing for an album, since the former was the arch-Romantic virtuoso pianist and tone poet, while the latter was an influential modernist composer and organist. Yet both men were devout Roman Catholic musicians with mystical ideas that found expression in their works. To be sure, this disc by pianist Fredrik Ullén illustrates the differences between them by presenting their solo piano pieces in alternation, so the listener is never lulled by one style or the other but stays attentive throughout the program.

The Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra join forces with pianist Yuja Wang and announce their upcoming album which features a stunning rendition of Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie. The recording celebrates the 75th anniversary of the work’s premiere in 1949. Most notably, it was originally commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra itself via their pioneering music director, Serge Koussevitsky.

Peter Hill - La Fauvette Passerinette: A Messiaen Premiere, with Birds, Landscapes & Homages (2014) {Delphian}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 259 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 188 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 64 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Delphian Records | DCD34141
Classical / Piano

Peter Hill’s latest CD for Delphian (DCD 34141) features the premiere of Messiaen’s recently discovered La Fauvette Passerinette, along with music by nine other composers who form part of the Messiaen ‘landscape’, from Ravel and Stockhausen to Dutilleux, Murail and George Benjamin. The CD has been selected as a record of the year in The Sunday Times, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, and Instrumental Choice in BBC Music Magazine.

The Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra join forces with pianist Yuja Wang and announce their upcoming album which features a stunning rendition of Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie. The recording celebrates the 75th anniversary of the work’s premiere in 1949. Most notably, it was originally commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra itself via their pioneering music director, Serge Koussevitsky.