Search - Olivier Messiaen :: Messiaen par lui-même

Profound Music, Profound Peformance. Poor Recording.

S. C Rice | 08/23/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the peculiarities of the twentieth century is the presence of recordings. If Mendelssohn had wished to hear Bach perform, it was too late; the secrets that Bach held playing his music were forever lost to him. Not many recognized Messiaen during his lifetime as the genius performer and composer that he was, and so now that the chance to hear him in person has passed, those interested must turn to recordings. How fortunate we are to have the recordings, though! It is good that we have records of titans like Bartok, Ives and Messiaen in our vaults! This is a must for any musician and a worthwhile listen for any `layman.' Messiaen was one of the most influential teachers of music in the Twentieth century and has left us some of the most important ovure from the epoch. Listening to a modernist perform his modern works, there is none of the coldness that comes from performers playing the music without understanding it, none of the feeling of listening to a trained bird. Messiaen plays expressing complex and powerful emotions; faith, awe, terror, mystery, majesty. The drawback is, of course, the poor recording that blunts the powerful timbres of the organ. But comparing Messiaen's performance with any that I have heard, I would take this recording before any of the other recordings of Messiaen's music. It is very powerful. Listen especially to the `Pentacost Mass.'One of the best recordings I own. One of the few profound performances recorded."

Excellent (and cheap) intro to Messiaen

W. P. Gardner | Menlo Park, CA, United States | 04/19/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This was my first Messiaen record. I walked into a record store and they were playing it. "What on earth is that?" I said. They showed me the record and I bought it. It is very intense. Olivier Messiaen plays his own works on organ. (The French title means "Messiaen by himself".) The bad news is that it's mono and a lot of these recordings are from the 50s. That never bothered me with this record. The mono is the only reason I did not give it 5 stars; it's a 5 star mono recording. The good news is that it's 4 CDs for what you'd normally pay for 2. You shouldn't get the impression, though, that this will introduce you to Messiaen's orchestral or piano works, which are pretty different from this."

Invaluable

W. P. Gardner | 11/29/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A must for organists who play Messiaen's works. How fortunate that we have a recording of Messiaen playing his own organ compositions. Although the performances aren't perfect they are extremely helpful, especially regarding tempii .. when he notes "extremement lent", he means it !"