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5.0 out of 5 stars
People need to hear this, April 25 2003
ok - well this is good - This piece was the first Messiaen I heard. I heard it on radio about three times - first hearing, I thought it was very odd and really quite rubbish - the next couple of hearings I was still cynical, but I had never heard anything quite like it before, and it kind of drew me - I started to find the the 5th and 6th movements mesmerizing, as well as the final movement. I eventually ended up buying it on CD - and it is an impressive piece.
I have now listened to some other Messiaen pieces, including Turangalila, the Quartet for the end of Time, Et Exspecto, Des Canyons aux etoiles and Livre du Saint Sacrement which are v good, and I don't know whether or not I would say this is the best, but it has more of a serenely majestic feel to it. The fifth movement is the most ecstatic music I have ever heard, the first movement is a fantastic piece - totally static - it seems to make the piece move outside of time at the very outset. Much of the work consists of a sort of spiritual ecstasy mixed with genuine awe, with scattered birdsong - which acts like a sort of 'small' quality showing that God, whilst majestic and awesome, and awesomely loving, is also beautiful and approachable.
This is music that many people 'won't get' which is a pity, as I think it presents something almost wholly unique in our western society let alone music - we have a busy society which always has to be places, and never feels it can be timeless. This is music that reaches into another world - as indicated in its title - which is far away from our western lives of appointments, meetings and merely forming interest cultures.
The last thing I want to see is this sort of music representing some kind of pretentious modern music culture - it is important stuff - and needs to be heard by a wide range of people. - Not everyone will like it on first hearing- perhaps very few will - but people should work at understanding what is going on and not be scared - after all its difficult to get on with any really good music - even more 'normal' stuff unless you've lived with it a bit. I get quite irritated by people running away from this stuff scared, and I also get irritated by people moaning about the precise quality of some bit of the performance or conductor's pace or something like its important.
End of diatribe - just go listen - and if it seems odd - listen again - and again - perhaps listen to other similar stuff - and don't do it just because you want to show off how educated you are - but give in time and you'll appreciate it. In the future, I think Messiaen may well come to be seen as as important as characters like Mozart or Beethoven or Wagner or Mahler - but this has a different feel - and this is its timelessness.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
This Bible needs a new translation., Jul 1 2001
This recording, and therefore the piece itself, whizzed right over my head when I took it out of the library six months ago. It didn't help that the librarian sneered "It's hard to take this Messy-en seriously." Since I love, with qualifications, earlier Messiaen works like Quatuor Pour le Fin du Temps, the Turangalila-Symphonie, and especially Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus -- the religious piano cycle that perfectly captures the sense of "holy dread," in Rautavaara's phrase, prevailing in the manger the night Christ was born, as if everyone present knew how many crucifixions, holy wars, and mind-numbing theological quibbles and Sunday school lessons were to follow -- I just chalked up Messiaen's "failure" with the Donut Symphony to senile self-parody. Then, a couple nights ago, I heard it played by the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle, not who you would think of as a born Messiaen conductor. It was revelatory. Shamelessly or not, he played up the symphony's structural resemblance to Mahler, especially the 3rd and its notorious attempt to encompass the world -- in his hands the centerpiece of Illuminations, "Demeurer Dans L'Amour," which sounds like a beam of sunlight refracted under water in a serene yet creepy ocean, made me think of the subtitle "What the Sea Anemones Taught Me As They Brushed Against My Legs While I Was Swimming and Really Weirded Me Out." Except that Messiaen's grab-bag is even more ambitious, attempting, like the movie 2001, transcendence as well -- the French word "demeurer," which means to melt into something, expresses the vibe more accurately, but has unfortunate 80's soft-rock connotations ( Modern English, specifically ) in our Anglo world. Anyway, whenever Messiaen goes completely static, that's when you know you're supposed to be seeing god. Listening to the aural Ny-Quil on this Chung disc, I much preferred to see my bed. This performance has all the structure of a deboned chicken. While I hate being one of those guys who whets your appetite for some obscure, lost performance you'll never hear, and there's no guarantee that Rattle was recorded -- although the audience reaction at the end made it quite clear they knew they had heard something special -- I'm at least obliged to tell you that this music can be less effete, more taut and muscular. More VERTICAL, in short, like Jacob's ladder, crucial for all you suppliants in the pit with eyes upraised to the heavens. So my final advice: wait for another recording, any recording. In the meantime, if you're thirsting for some lesser-known 20th century classical, try something by Per Norgard, Edmund Rubbra, Malcolm Arnold, Vagn Holmboe, Peter Eotvos...
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre Messiaen, May 26 2000
I thought this CD would be worth a listen to after experiencing the Turangalila Symphony. However, compared to the great Messiaen works, such as the Turangalila or the Quartet for the End of Time, this work is quite mediocre, and not worth the price of the CD.In form the music alternates between serene moments and Messiaen's famous birdcall music. However, the more serene moments do not have the timeless quality that you can find in Mahler, Tavener, Part, etc. Unless you must listen to all of Messiaen's works, skip this one.
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