Messiaen Mystic

Mystic: The Musical Visions of Olivier Messiaen is a sort of greatest-hits package for Messiaen that followed in the wake of the composer's death in 1992, though it did not appear until 1996. It is a Messiaen compilation that shapes certain movements taken out of longer works into a sort of easy listening context, which does provide some clues to the uninitiated as to how to access Messiaen, but in itself, it is a little disingenuous. There are no transcribed birdcalls, no "Chronochromie," nothing from "Quatour du le fin de temps," nor anything else that indicates what a challenging and intense composer Messiaen was. Just the prettiest parts of some pieces that are not in themselves necessarily very "pretty," couched in a sort of vaguely stated mysticism. The individual movements themselves are certainly well done and recorded—all of them are taken from the exemplary work of conductor Myung-Whun Chung for Deutsche Grammophon, recordings that Messiaen himself regarded as authoritative. But these pieces deserve to be heard in the context to which they belong, even if it is part of an unwieldy and sometimes messy 10-movement symphony such as the "Turangilila." However, as a disc with which to get one's feet wet in Messiaen, Mystic is not so bad—just bear in mind that there are a lot more ingredients to Messiaen's celestial banquet than this disc would imply.

Uncle Dave Lewis, All Music Guide

This fabulous five disc set is replete with some of those old Stokowski warhorses all recorded in absolutely mind boggling Phase 4 sound, overblown perhaps but astounding for its time. Decca's remastering is absolutely magnificent and the discs are jam packed with almost six hours of music. This is another fine memorial to a great conductor who remained astonishingly vital until the very end of his life.

Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) was a mystic composer who expressed his faith through his works, the most important of which is L’Orgue mystique (The Mystic Organ). The present recording, however, proposes the rare and fascinating piano cycle Douze Préludes-Poèmes, Op. 58 (Twelve Prelude-Poems). Composed in Paris between March 17 and May 21, 1932, these Prelude-Poems form a mystic vision of man’s life-long relationship with his Creator. The pianist Lise Boucher performs this magnificent and original music, which is both an extension of Debussy and a foreshadowing of Messiaen.

To be sure, there are some great performances in this 10-disc set, André Previn: The Great Recordings. Previn's insouciant wit is evident in his effervescent reading of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and there is deep affection in his sensuous account of highlights from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. His explosive rendering of Orff's Carmina Burana has barbaric splendor, and there is thrilling excitement in his orgasmic interpretation of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony. But it can't be denied that Previn's superficial readings of Holst's The Planets and Debussy's Images are little more than musical travelogs, and that his dreary accounts of Shostakovich's Eighth and Elgar's Enigma Variations are musty musical picture galleries. His extravagantly colorful renderings of Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast come across as lurid musical history lessons.