Search - Messiaen, Ugorski :: Catalogue D'Oseaux / La Fauvette Des Jardins

Probably the definitive performance of this modern masterpie

cmk | Oregon | 09/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Those looking for a performance of Messiaen's Catalogue of Birds cannot do better than this one. First, a word about the music itself. Composed from late 1956 to early 1958, it is not exactly easy listening. Messiean's compositional style often does not use traditional tonality, and while beautiful, it's not beautiful in the traditional sense like Bach or Beethoven. Messiaen's soundworld is totally his own and is quite unique. When you think of the sound of birds in music, most people think of the Pastoral symphony by Beethoven or some of the early symphonies of Mahler. But Messiaen took it a whole step further. Messiaen believed birds to be the greatest musicians, and he literally recorded them and transposed the sounds they produced through their songs into his compositions. And birds certainly don't sing knowing anything about traditional western harmony, melody, or tonality! This is Messiaen's longest and greatest manifesto of birdsong for the piano. The writing is simultaneously strange and raw(in a good way!), though sometimes soft and tender, but always imaginative. Not only does this piece show off the bird songs themselves of 13 different birds but it seeks to paint a picture of their surroundings as well. I personally find this massive suite totally captivating (the whole suite is about 2 1/2 hours requiring 3 CDs!).





This performance by Anatol Ugorski is probably the definitive recording. I have also heard the performance on Naxos by Hakon Austbo. His birds are a more subtued, subtle bunch while Ugorski is altogether routier and not afraid to let the music rip! It has often been said that Messiaen's music has a little bit of Liszt in it, and you'll definitely hear that in Ugorski's tremendous playing. While you can't go wrong with either one(and thankfully, this one and the Naxos are both at budget price), I definitely prefer this one, both in terms of performance and sound engineering. The sound quality is quite vivid with excellent presence and impact. Messiaen's writing is not afraid to transpose birdsong to the lowest and highest registers of the piano and this recording captures it all very well. It was digitally recorded in 1993 with some selections recorded in a Berlin studio but most recorded in the Jesus Christus Kirche, well known for its excellent acoustics. This album also comes with a performance of La Fauvette des Jardins, composed in 1970, in every way a perfect companion piece to the main suite.



Lovers of the composer need not hesitate picking this one up. Those who are new to this work, I would recommend listening to this piece one disc at a time as it might take repeated hearings to fully absorb. Those with open minds and ears who are up for some fascinating, adventerous solo piano repertoire, will find this huge masterpiece very rewarding. I know I definitely have.



P.S. Classicstoday.com has a review of this album in which they give it a perfect score 10/10. I couldn't agree more."