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The 'really' complete organ works by Messiaen. In 2014, Jon Gillock began releasing his recordings of Messiaen’s Complete Organ Works on the Raven label and the project is now finished with the addition of a recently discovered transcription entitled 'Vie pour Dieu des Ressuscités '. They have been recorded on the new organ by Pascal Quoirin (St. Didier, France) at The Church of the Ascension, NYC. He participated in the design of this French organ, which is ideal for Messiaen’s music. Although the acoustic in the church is excellent and warm, it is not terribly reverberant. This aspect provides an added dimension to this music because one can hear all the detail of the compositions, which are not hidden by an overly reverberant space. This acoustic is similar to that found in concert halls, where orchestras perform Messiaen’s music. These recordings show that this unusual body of music can function in more than one setting. On January 15, 1974, Jon Gillock gave the New York premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité at The Church of the Ascension, NYC. That single performance launched him into a career as a concert artist almost over night, giving premieres of this fabulous work from coast to coast. The following year, he gave the first New York performance of Messiaen’s then Complete Works for Organ — the Livre du Saint Sacrement had not yet been written — in a series of five concerts. Soon afterwards, he met Messiaen who invited Gillock to visit him in Paris. In 1977, Gillock went to Paris to study with his Maître at the Paris Conservatory. In 1986, Messiaen presented Gillock with a copy of his manuscript for the new Livre du Saint Sacrement , authorizing him to give performances of this epic masterpiece before its publication. Again, Gillock gave the New York premiere, which was again followed by a transcontinental tour premiering this piece around the country to wide critical and public acclaim. He has given several other special New York performances of this work — in 1988, to celebrate Messiaen’s 80th birthday; in 1992, as a memorial tribute to Messiaen at the time of his death; and in 1996, for the opening concert of the Convention of the American Guild of Organists that celebrated their 100th anniversary. The work, Vie pour Dieu des Ressuscités was recently discovered (while the Messiaen collection was being catalogued at the Bibliothèque de France) within the manuscript of Les Corps glorieux on the back of the first movement (Subtililté des Corps glorieux ) and seems to have been considered by Messiaen for the second movement of that work. The work itself is a transcription for organ of the fourth movement from Fête des belles Eaux entitled L'Eau, a transcription of which became the fifth movement of Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps (Praise to the Eternity of Jesus ). Because Messiaen gave the organ transcription a characteristic subtitle from the scriptures: "Alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord; charity never faileth." - St. Paul, letter to the Romans 6:11 and I Corinthians 13:8, and its substantial 13min duration, must have been seriously considered at the time. Jon Gillock provides extensive notes in the CD booklet on this and all the works recorded along with photographs and organ details that are sumptuously presented in all six jewel cases (there are six releases three of which are double CDs for the price of one). Nine CDs in all from Raven Compact Discs here . Jon Gollock gave all the New York premieres of every organ piece by Messiaen since 1974: 1974 NY Premiere of Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité 1975 First New York performance of Messiaen’s Complete Works for Organ 1987 NY Premiere of Livre du Saint Sacrement (from the manuscript) 1999 American and NY Premieres of three then-recently discovered pieces: Monodie Offrande au Saint Sacrement (from the manuscript) Prélude (from the manuscript) 2022 World premiere recording of Vie pour Dieu des Ressuscités (from the manuscript, unpublished)

Mount Messiaen Mount Messiaen – Facts and reminiscences. © Malcolm Ball This short account sets out some basic facts surrounding the naming and dedication of Mount Messiaen and my own reminiscences after a visit to the site in June 2022. There is a brilliant and comprehensive in-depth article on the subject entitled b by Robert Fallon and reproduced in the publication ‘Messiaen Perspectives 2: Techniques, Influence and Reception’ see bibliography The idea of naming a mountain after Messiaen was the brainchild of Julie Whitaker, a dancer and English teacher who lived in Paris for two years where she first made contact with Messiaen’s music. In the mid 1970’s when Julie heard of Messiaen’s ‘canyon symphony’, and his description of Southern Utah as ‘the most mystical landscape he had ever encountered’, she asked the composer if he would agree to the naming of something in his honour. Messiaen responded with delight saying that ‘anything in his name would be a great honour, even a side street or a nature path for bird watchers’. After finding a site approximately eight miles from the town of Parowan, Julie set about the task of naming the site and also organising performances of some of Messiaen’s works at the location. It took three years of organising and political wrangling before the naming was finalised but in 1978 a plaque was eventually cast by Julie’s brother Lyman, a sculptor of kinetic art, and the site was officially named. © Malcolm Ball The bronze plaque cast by Julie's brother Lyman © Malcolm Ball When I first heard about Robert Fallon’s visit to Mount Messiaen in 2008 and seeing his wonderful photo gallery (here ), I immediately added it to my bucket list of Messiaen related places to visit. This list was shrinking and places were ticked off with some sense of regularity as most of the Messiaen ‘sites’ and certainly dwellings were in France and relatively easy for me to arrange visits (pre Brexit). However, the Mount is situated 4,933 miles from where I live and a trip would require much preparation and funds. The opportunity eventually arose when I was lucky enough to attend a performance of Des Canyons aux Étoiles… given by the Utah Symphony in O.C. Tanner amphitheatre, Zion in June this year. (see review). I had given myself time to visit all the areas that so influenced Messiaen when writing the work (Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon and Zion Park) but I also put time aside to visit the Mount. On the appointed day, I set off in my hire car to Parowan and followed Robert Fallon’s detailed directions. The road out of Parowan is narrow and winding but luckily not busy in terms of traffic as this is rural Utah so my speed was necessarily slow, and sure enough, after eight or so miles I caught site of those (to some) famous peaks on my left. I immediately pulled off the road and parked up. I was not on the logging trail that Robert explained in his directions but on the opposite side of the road. It was a sunny day but at an elevation of some 9,000 feet, not too hot. I began taking some shots of the peaks from where I had parked which had good uninterrupted views and virtually no traffic to concern me. It was very peaceful. After a few minutes a small white car approached and stopped on the other side of the road at the entrance to the track leading up to the Mount. A slight air of disappointment ran through me as I was hoping for an uninterrupted visit at this special and revered site. A couple got out of the car and the lady walked determinedly up the track and disappeared around the bend. At this point I felt duty bound to cross the road and introduce myself to the gentleman who by this time had extracted a large pair of long handled secateurs from the back of the car. I approached with some trepidation as the secateurs wielding gentleman walked slightly towards me, but he greeted me with a welcoming smile and asked, “was I hear for the Mount Messiaen?” I said indeed I was and explained my connection with Messiaen and the website after which he said “Ah! That’s my wife walking up there – Julie Whitaker, you must come and meet her”. I paused for a few seconds and thought - Hang on a minute, I’ve travelled nearly 5,000 miles, chosen a random time and day to visit this site and at almost the exact same time so did the person who initiated the site back in 1978. This was the most incredibly fortuitous encounter I could imagine. © Malcolm Ball © Malcolm Ball Julie and her husband Michael Burke were there to tidy up and clear the bronze plaque of obtrusive weeds etc. They, like me were also there to attend the concert in Zion two days later. Julie and I chatted rather excitedly while Michael attacked the weeds and she was so generous with her information and reminiscences of her time spent organising the naming of the site as well as the performances that took place at the final ceremony. Her vision was to dedicate the mountain followed by a ‘Messiaen Festival’ in September 1976 which would include a screening of Denise Tual’s film Olivier Messiaen et les Oiseaux, lectures by Messiaen at the University of Utah and a performance of Des Canyons aux Étoiles… Julie corresponded with Messiaen who was very keen and accepted the initial invitation but as time passed, dates began to conflict on both sides and after many months of negotiations, Julie wrote to Messiaen to inform him that the festival was cancelled due to lack of funding and lack of cooperation from certain parties. The dedication ceremony did take place at 6.00pm on 5th August 1978 and was televised by the local TV channel. They unveiled the bronze plaque, and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony. At 8.00pm the ceremony continued with readings, a prayer, a speech by Julie about Messiaen and a performance of Chants de terre et de ciel by Naomi and Lowell Farr, musicians on the faculty of the University of Utah. The trailhead leading up to the pinnacles. © Malcolm Ball View opposite from the Mount © Malcolm Ball After some time at the Mount (and a nice tidy plaque thanks to Michael and his secateurs) the couple made their departure and we all looked forward to meeting up again at the concert. I spent more time alone at the site taking photos and walking around the base of the Mount reflecting on such an amazing coincidental meeting and also what Messiaen would have felt had he seen these understated peaks in person. When asked how he felt about having his own mountain in Utah he replied: “Ah, it’s just incredible and very touching. When I told my agent about it, he was amazed. When I told my publisher M Leduc in Paris about it, he was astounded too. He couldn’t imagine that there would be a mountain anywhere with my name; at first he laughed, but then he almost cried. And we plan to go back there soon. It’s a great excuse to see Utah again, and, in any case, it seems to me that I now have the obligation to present myself before those three cliffs. They’re there waiting for me”. Sadly he never got to see the Mount in situ due to commitments and ill health. As planned, Julie and I met up after the concert in Zion together with Michael, Julie’s brother Lyman and other family members. It was an enormous privilege to have met such an inspired and driven person who back in the 1970’s dedicated so much energy in honouring a composer who was inspired by her childhood homeland. My photos provide an interesting comparison to those taken by Robert Fallon in 2008. Three years ago, that part of Parowan canyon suffered a serious dry mountain fire that decimated the trees in front of the Mount hence the different pictorial dynamic between our images. Malcolm Ball. Sources: Placing Mount Messiaen by Robert Fallon and reproduced in the publication ‘Messiaen Perspectives 2: Techniques, Influence and Reception ’ Canyons, Colours and Birds : An Interview with Oliver(sic) Messiaen by Harriett Watts. Tempo magazine 128. Julie Whitaker © Malcolm Ball Julie Whitaker and Michael Burke © Malcolm Ball My grateful and heartfelt thanks go to Julie and Michael for their time and for sharing their memories of this most amazing achievement to mark Olivier Messiaen's time in Utah that resulted in one of his finest works: Des Canyons aux Étoiles... © Malcolm Ball

CD Reviews Visions Tamara Stefanovich and Pierre-Laurent Aimard (pianos). Visions de l’Amen (Messiaen) – Carillon Nocturne (from Suite No.3, Op.18 “Pieces Impromptues”) (Enescu) – Prayer Bell Sketch, Op.29 (Knussen) – Clock IV (from Harrison’s Clocks) – Birtwistle). Pentatone PTC 5186 957. Release Date: 23-09-2022 Ever since hearing Tamara Stefanovich and Pierre-Laurent Aimard perform Visions de l’Amen at St. John’s Smith Square, London on the 25 January 2017, I have longed for a recording of the work by these two champions of Messiaen’s music and at last Pentatone have delivered. This recording was made in July 2021 in the Stefaniensaal, Congress Graz, Austria. Although Visions de l’Amen was composed after Messiaen’s release from the prisoner of war camp in 1941, Paris was still under German Occupation in 1943 when he began work on the piece after a commission from impresario Denise Tual. From the outset, Messiaen knew it would be a work for two pianos and that he would perform it alongside the brilliant young pianist Yvonne Loriod who had appeared in his first class at the Paris Conservatoire in May 1941. Nigel Simeone’s booklet notes details the progress towards the first performance and reveals some fascinating facts and accounts surrounding the work. The Piano I part was assigned to Yvonne Loriod and the writing explores the bells, birdsong, virtuoso passagework and rhythmic complexities while Piano II handles the thematic material and controls the pace of the work. In this recording Piano I is Tamara Stefanovich and Piano II, Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Loriod and Messiaen recorded the work in 1949 on six 12” 78s on French Contrepoint label but for many years the Messiaen’s 1962 recording on Vega had been a benchmark and the one that is most faithful to the score. Irén Marik and John Ranck made a recording c.1956 and performed it at the Deepest Valley Theatre, USA in 1965 then the Labèque’s took it on in 1969 under Messiaen's supervision. Lately of course many couples have ventured into Messiaen’s world of creation, spinning planets, the agony of Jesus and Jugement, desire and consummation, some with variable results it has to be said. In this recording Tamara Stefanovich and Pierre-Laurent Aimard have taken the work to another level in a performance that not only has bucket loads of technical command and virtuosity but also immense sensitivity and pianism of the highest order that is entirely at the service of the music. ‘Amen de la Création’ opens the work and in many performances it is so often rushed and devoid of Messiaen’s instruction of ‘Very slow, mysterious and solemn’. Not here, the tempo is perfect and the dynamic build well measured. Aimard produces an almost tam tam-like sonority in the depths of the piano that complement the shafts of light from Stefanovich’s Piano I. The climax of the movement where Piano II has timeless broken chord flourishes is perfectly timed with no distortion of line in Piano I. The energized ‘Amen des étoiles, de la planète à l’anneau’ reveals precise tempo changes (seldom found in some performances) and absolute synchronicity in the stabs. Aimard does of course have some advantage over others in having studied with Loriod and Messiaen and began playing the work from the age of fifteen. His insight and interpretation of the ‘Bien moderé – douloureux en pleurant’ (painful and crying) section in ‘Amen de l’agonie de Jésus’ is unutterably moving and his finger independence in the chords of ‘Amen du Désir’ is astonishing. Both pianists have a conjoined sense of ensemble that is clearly demonstrated in ‘Amen des Anges, des Saints, du chant des oiseaux’ where Piano II dances exuberantly beneath the excited chatterings of the birds in Piano I. The only ‘surprise’ I had on my first hearing was the tempo chosen for the opening of ‘Amen de la Consommation’ which is faster than the score indicates, but again, Stefanovich and Aimard come up trumps by balancing this with a sudden gear change to a slower pulse at the ‘ppp’ heavenly bells section before the ‘Un peu plus vif’. Here, Stefanovich does well to capture most of the accented rhythmic character in the lower part of Piano I and after some super-human glittering passagework alongside vibrant, dazzling dynamic colours from Aimard, the final fortissimo A major chord is allowed to ring on into paradise for a full 53” Despite some over enthusiastic and noisy pedal work in ‘Amen du Jugement’ and some heavy breathing, the recording quality is superb and this performance I’m sure will be unsurpassed, in my lifetime at least. ©MB MESSIAEN III Intégrale de l’oeuvre pour piano solo Haruka Miyazaki (Piano) Huit Preludes, La Fauvette Des Jardins, La Dame de Shalott. Release date 10 November 2019. 299Music HMV Japan Over the past 20 years or so the number of performances and recordings of Messiaen’s music has steadily grown in Japan although for those of us living outside the country (especially in Europe) it has been notoriously difficult to obtain CDs and when we can they prove to be very expensive when import and customs duty is slammed on. This said, it is often the case that us ‘foreigners’ are amply rewarded with exquisitely produced products and fine performances. Haruka Miyazaki has embarked on a journey claiming to record all the solo piano works by Messiaen and this is the third in the series. Volumes ‘Messiaen I and II’ are devoted to the Catalogue d’oiseaux and I have yet to listen or obtain these but I was particularly intrigued by the collection of works on Messiaen III as it included La Dame de Shalott, Messiaen’s Opus 1 inspired by the Tennyson poem and composed when he was just eight years old. The CD opens with the 8 Preludes Messiaen’s first published work. Composed when he was twenty he had already a passionate love of birds but without the knowledge of how to write down their songs. However, he did have an innate sense of sound-colour and the Preludes draw on his developing work with modes of limited transposition. There are obvious nods to Debussy and Ravel but Messiaen never regarded the work as impressionistic. Miyazaki has an ideal touch to convey the musical colours and shape of the pieces as well as a clear sense of melodic and harmonic balance. There is just one (repeated) mis-read chord in No.2 (Chant d’extase dans un paysage triste) that takes away a little of the intended spice. La Fauvette des Jardins (The Garden Warbler) 1970 is the main filling in this musical sandwich. Messiaen’s longest and most substantial piano solo (dedicated to birdsong) to date. The piece traces a sequence of natural events at Petichet (Messiaen’s summer retreat) from night time through daybreak, morning, afternoon, evening then full circle to night. Pianists taking on this work find themselves having to be their own ‘film director’ in the sense that the birdsongs are only part of this vast canvas that also includes ‘the night’, the undulating water of Lake Laffrey, the alders and above all the Grand Serre mountain, whose colourful hues change as the sun passes over during the day. Miyazaki rises to these challenges with unshaken security and a sense of drama and occasion. The song of the Fauvette des jardins is always forte and often tenaciously relentless and the playing remains persuasive and well shaped with all tenuto’s and accents observed, making this version comparable to the Loriod version of 1973 on Erato that was always the benchmark. The CD concludes with La Dame de Shalott Messiaen’s first acknowledged composition worthy of inclusion in the catalogue of his works. It was never published but Yvonne Loriod recorded a version in 1975 as part of the then ‘Integrale de l’oeuvre pour piano’ on Erato. This is what Messiaen stated in the Erato booklet: “In this “Lady of Shalott” a child’s imagination runs unleashed. Nothing is missing: the castle, the inflection of the spoken word, the song of Lady Shalott (weaving!), Sir Lancelot on horseback, the broken mirror, the tapestry which flies out of the window, the falling willow leaves and the death of the lady who lies in a boat drifting down the river (barcarole!)”. Roger Muraro delivers a guided tour of La Dame de Shalott as part of the bonus DVD in his Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus presentation on Accord. He uses a manuscript supplied (reluctantly) by Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen and the music is that of her 1975-recorded version. This version is in three parts and here are the names of each musical ‘scene’: Part 1 – The magic castle – peasant’s conversations. Part 2 – The weaver and La Dame d’Shalott singing at the spinning wheel. Part 3 – Sir Lancelot rides on horseback – La Dame sees the knight – The magic mirror breaks – The wind blows the tapestry – The parting of the willow branches where she sees the boat – Finally she dies and drifts away in the boat. Miyazaki was intrigued with La Dame de Shalott and felt she should include it in a ‘complete works’ recording. To achieve this she had to make a trip to the BNF in France to gain access to the original manuscript, which she duly did but was not able to remove the script or take photos. However, they did allow her to copy it in pencil by hand. So this is the world premiere of the ‘version non remaniée’ (unedited). This version begins as above with Part 1 and 2 and mostly the same material as the Loriod (but for a couple of either mis-read or changed chords in the spinning wheel scene). Then the music proceeds straight into a version of the final scene where La Dame dies and floats away in the boat, after which the piece repeats from the start. So we don’t get Sir Lancelot riding on horseback – La Dame sees the knight – The magic mirror breaks – The wind blows the tapestry – or the parting of the willow branches where she sees the boat. Nonetheless, after 102 years we finally have the original version of La Dame de Shalott and we must thank Haruka Miyazaki for her resourcefulness and dedication. Meticulous care has been taken in the production of this CD, however the empty concert hall acoustic proved a little too reverberant to my ears to suit a sense of ‘outdoors’ in La Fauvette des Jardins. ©M.Ball Olivier Messiaen Live: Improvisations inédites La Praye Disques I stumbled on La Praye, a tiny web site and equally tiny independent label specializing in music for the organ, purely by chance. Based in Rully, France and Montreal, Quebec their small but highly significant catalogue revealed this 2 CD set of Messiaen improvising at the organ of La Trinité. That these recordings came about at all is something of a small two pronged miracle, and is thanks to the ingenuity of Olivier Glandaz the organ builder who since 1977 has been responsible for the maintenance of the organ at La Trinité. It was his idea to make recordings of Messiaen's improvisations during some of the religious ceremonies and Sunday Masses at the church. The other prong of this small miracle is down to Maxime Patel the producer of the CD. Apparently Maxime Patel was approached by Jeanne Loriod in 2001 with an idea to mark the 10th anniversary of Messiaen's death with a release of a CD including Fête des Belles Eaux. Sadly this project was never realized due to the sudden death of Jeanne Loriod the same year. So Patel decided to honour the occasion with the release of these improvisations. Olivier Glandaz recorded these improvisations between 1984 and 1987 using 'non professional' equipment and thanks to the remastering skills of Laurent Olivier we are presented with nearly two and a half hours of the maître at work. Armed only with his little well used book of Gregorian chant melodies, Messiaen weaves his magic over an often spellbound congregation who respond with spontaneous applause giving thanks for bringing into focus musically the lesson that had been read. There are 29 improvisations in all displaying all aspects of Messiaen's organ technique and fondness for the characteristic combination registers of the Trinité organ in styles ranging from the sublime Priére du Christ montant vers son Pére (L'Ascension) and Priére avant la communion (Livre du Saint Sacrement) to fiery toccata moments a la Dieu Parmi Nous. Organ music has always been notorious to record because of the inherent nature of location. The rumble of traffic, the slamming of the odd door has to be accepted on the best recordings and yes there is background noise and yes there is the odd clunking of furniture down below in the church but this never dims the experience of hearing this music in the spirit it was performed and for those of us who were never lucky enough to be part of the congregation at La Trinité these recordings are surely the next best thing. There is a DVD available (see 'resources' page) which features Messiaen improvising, again an invaluable document but one which lacks the spontaneity induced by a 'live' audience or congregation and that's what makes these CDs so important both to the Messiaen scholar and the interested listener. Sadly these CDs are no longer available commercially (2020) Dame Gillian Weir and Olivier Messiaen GILLIAN WEIR THE LEGENDARY MESSIAEN RECORDINGS REISSUED "Our generation is the fortunate recipient of this remarkable testament to Gillian Weir's intellectual, spiritual and musical affinity with Messiaen's music. Messiaen's own recordings inspire us, but Gillian Weir's transport us to a seemingly ideal plane, where music, technique and organ sound blend into something greater than their parts." [Organists' Review, February 1995] In the year which marks the 10th Anniversary of the composer's death, Priory Records announces the reissue on its own label of Gillian Weir's legendary recordings of the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen. When the set was originally issued by Collins Classics, critics all over the world were unanimous not only in their praise of the performances, but also in their respect for the fundamental musical affinity between performer and composer. "This corpus of organ music - incontrovertibly the most profound and significant of the twentieth century - has here found a recording which in itself is a landmark in the history of recorded sound" wrote one critic. "There is no doubt that Gillian Weir's recording of the complete Messiaen is the reference by which all other performances will now be judged", wrote another. BBC Music Magazine chose the set as one of its "Best CD's of 1994". The complete cycle - which Messiaen personally urged Gillian Weir to commit to CD - was recorded on the famous organ of Aarhus Cathedral in Denmark during January and February 1994: the original recordings were made in association with BBC Radio 3. Priory have remastered the recordings and made the series available separately for the first time: there are four single CD's, and one double CD, the latter including the Livre du Saint Sacrement. Dame Gillian herself has written booklet notes for the series, reflecting many decades of association with the composer and his organ music. The first CD [PRCD 921 - La Nativite du Seigneur, Le Banquet Celeste, L'Apparition de l'Eglise Eternelle] was issued on 29 October 2002 when Dame Gillian opened the 2002/3 Organ Recital series at London's Royal Festival Hall. These are superb recordings and Priory have done a magnificent job in making them available again with excellent presentation enhanced by Mark Rowan-Hull's artwork inspired and based on Messiaen's music. The fifth and sixth volume are combined into this final 2-CD set. The works include Livre du Sacrement, and three new additional works published after Messiaen's death: • Prélude • Monodie • Offrande au Saint Sacrement These three pieces were not in the original issue of this series, but were recently recorded for this re-release series on the same organ at Århus Cathedral. This disc also contains an exceptional 30-page booklet that is becoming a notable hallmark of each disc in this series: • Notes by the player herself, recognised as a Messiaen authority throughout the world, writer on his organ music in Faber's The Messiaen Companion, and and able to give unique insights into the way a performer thinks about the music; • Reproductions of original paintings by Mark Rowan-Hull who is famous for translating into visual terms his vision of the organ music of Messiaen; • Articles by distinguished scientists from Oxford and London Universities on the latest research into synaesthesia; • Stoplists of the Århus organ as well as La Trinité, with descriptions of Messiaen's experiences and changes he desired on that instrument; • List of organ works, when and if they were published and performed; • Timeline of important milestone's in Messiaen's life. “Gillian Weir's cycle remains the best of all, and she, playing the marvellous Frobenius instrument at Århus, brings that special spaciousness and intensity to the Livre that distinguishes her cycle as a whole... It is, quite simply, one of the finest organ recordings ever made.” Arnold Whittall, October 2004 Awards issue of Gramophone Visit Gillian Weir's Homepage The complete cycle - which Messiaen personally urged Gillian Weir to commit to CD - was recorded on the famous organ of Aarhus Cathedral in Denmark during January and February 1994: the original recordings were made in association with BBC Radio 3. Priory have remastered the recordings and made the series available separately for the first time: there are four single CD's, and one double CD, the latter including the Livre du Saint Sacrement. Dame Gillian herself has written booklet notes for the series, reflecting many decades of association with the composer and his organ music. The first CD [PRCD 921 - La Nativite du Seigneur, Le Banquet Celeste, L'Apparition de l'Eglise Eternelle] was issued on 29 October 2002 when Dame Gillian opened the 2002/3 Organ Recital series at London's Royal Festival Hall. These are superb recordings and Priory have done a magnificent job in making them available again with excellent presentation enhanced by Mark Rowan-Hull's artwork inspired and based on Messiaen's music.

Personal audio and visual archive of Messiaen recordings. Resources A selection of my personal audio & visual Resource Archive Unlike several years ago, Messiaens' music is now well represented in the commercial audio market. Listed below is my own personal collection some of which may be of interest and could be made available on a strictly private basis for study or research. A comprehensive discography can be found in 'The Messiaen Companion ' edited by Peter Hill and compiled by Dr. Christopher Dingle. Res1 View More Back to top

French composer Olivier Messiaen, his life and works. Includes biography, bibliography, list of works, birdsong, events listing and much more. of the 20th Century music. Loriod, birdsong, education https://www.oliviermessiaen.org/ Olivier Messiaen "My faith is the grand drama of my life. I'm a believer, so I sing words of God to those who have no faith. I give bird songs to those who dwell in cities and have never heard them, make rhythms for those who know only military marches or jazz, and paint colours for those who see none". (Olivier Messiaen) © Copyright protected 1908 - 1992 © Copyright protected Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen 1924 - 2010 Bio READ MORE © Copyright protected © Malcolm Crowthers OLIVIER-EUGENE-PROSPER-CHARLES MESSIAEN (b. Dec. 10, 1908, Avignon, France.d. April 27, 1992, Clichy, near Paris), Olivier Messiaen was the son of Pierre Messiaen, a scholar of English literature, and of the poet Cecile Sauvage. Soon after his birth the family moved to Ambert (the birthplace of Chabrier) where his brother, Alain was born in 1913. Around the time of the outbreak of World War 1, Cecile Sauvage took her two sons to live with her brother in Grenoble where Olivier Messiaen spent his early childhood, began composing at the age of seven, and taught himself to play the piano. On his return from the war, Pierre Messiaen took the family to Nantes and in 1919 they all moved to Paris where Olivier entered the Conservatoire. Bio © Copyright protected Michel Gueritte is organising a concert project in Fuligny, under a big top, on the Messiaen estate, in the parking lot, for the European Heritage Days, on September 20th and 21st. Details here The 26th March 2025 was not only the 100th birthday of Pierre Boulez but also the 80th anniversary of the first performance of Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant Jésus by Yvonne Loriod. Messiaen - Day 2025 Meetingpoint Memory Messiaen are pleased to announce that the Messiaen Days will take place in a new format in 2025! After last year's cancellation, the next edition of the festival of music, history and art will take place in spring for the first time. See events calendar for full details, and review HERE Messiaen inspired grand organ to be installed in the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur at Paray-le Monial, France. See news page . Rich Kass interprets the song of the Skylark on the Drum Set. See Media Page My Morning with Messiaen - Les oiseaux et les sources (Messe de la Pentecôte) Recently added video from organist Timothy Hagy. See Media Page Musicologist and Messiaen specialist Jerzy Stankiewicz at the inauguration of the Rue Olivier Messiaen in Toul, France 2022 See video here . More street names dedicated to Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod See Gallery UK Premiere of a work by Yvonne Loriod: Grains de cendre (1946) for Ondes Martenot, Piano and Voice Details of performance here . Turangalîla Symphonie BBC PROMS see review here . !NEW DVD RELEASE! Fugue State Films December release of their Messiaen project now has the suitably cosmological title Messiaen's Musical Universe. The cover design is finished, utilising a wonderful painting by Martin Cottam. If you simply want to receive the DVD as soon as it is available, please prebuy it now too. Your support now would be incredibly helpful for two reasons. Firstly, releasing projects (see here ) for Christmas is very expensive, with fees for editors, sound designers, graphic designers and of course the cost of manufacture of the productions. Secondly, it would be very helpful to know how many orders to expect, as we finalise the number of units we will be printing of the DVD boxset. Yvonne Loriod The Complete Véga Recordings 1956 - 1963 Reissued by Warner Classics in January 2024 To commemorate the 100th year of her birth. Works by Mozart, Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, Albeniz, deFalla, Berg, Webern, Schoenberg, Henze, Boulez, Barraqué, Stravinsky and Messiaen. 13 CDs album. More details here . The Complete Messiaen Organ Works including a previously unpublished and unrecorded transcription 'Vie pour Dieu des Ressuscités', by organist Jon Gillock Read more here . New items in the 'Yvonne Loriod' page New items in the 'In the Press' page Des Canyons aux Étoiles... Performed by the Utah Symphony directed by Thierry Fischer under the stars and in the canyon at Zion Park which was one of the places that most influenced Messiaen at the time of writing. See: In The Press here Mount Messiaen The story and reminiscences ( here) . Rescue of MESSIAEN HOUSE in FULIGNY - Aube - Champagne area. This is the house where Messiaen's aunts lived and where he spent his summer vacations for many years. Here he notated his first bird songs and composed, among others, Preludes for piano, Le Banquet Céleste, Le Banquet Eucharistique, Les Offrandes Oubliées, Le Tombeau Resplendissant... and many more sketches that would find themselves in later works. Messiaen continued to visit his aunts and this house throughout his life. The current owner has decided to sell this house and the couple who wish to buy it intend to demolish it in view of the costs for its restoration. The Association LA QUALITE DE VIE reacted immediately, and is doing everything possible to have this "house of character" become an historical monument. The idea is to have this house bought by those who are interested in the world of BIRDS, in HERITAGE, in CONTEMPORARY MUSIC, in the ORGAN, in Olivier MESSIAEN... A FOUNDATION LE CHANT DES OISEAUX DE FULIGNY will make this place a concentration of Culture : "the grown-ups" and "the school children" will be able to learn to recognise the birds, their song, their life... One can imagine a specialised media library... and in a small auditorium one can listen to all the music and songs of the bird world... And maybe a care centre for injured birds and animals... CALL FOR DONATIONS for the safeguarding of LA MAISON DES MESSIAEN in Fuligny (in Aube, in Champagne). Read and see more here including a video of Messiaen speaking about the work of Michel Gueritte . "LA QUALITE DE VIE, an association governed by the law of July 1, 1901, registered with the Troyes Prefecture on February 9, 2007, whose head office is located at 8 route de Soulaines - 10200 VILLE-SUR-TERRE, represented by its current president, M. Michel GUERITTE, has decided to set up an endowment fund, governed by law no. 2008-776 of August 4, 2008 on the modernization of the economy (JO of August 5, 2008), by decree no. 2009-158 of February 11, 2009, and by the present articles of association, in order to safeguard and acquire La Maison des Messiaen, 18 rue du moulin in Fuligny in connection with the association's purpose. Michel GUERITTE is the founder of this fund. Michel Gueritte, who himself has family connections with the Messiaen's, is spearheading this project so if you wish to partake and help, please email Michel at: michel.gueritte@gmail.com Read more here . New publications see NEWS page HERE The Cleveland Museum of Art invited Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod to perform a two-piano concert on October 13, 1978, in the Gartner Auditorium. The Museum has recently unearthed the recording made of the occasion. See news page . A prayer composed by Olivier Messiaen A rare document submitted by P. Jean-Rodolphe Kars HERE Matthew Schellhorn's special film for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2021 HERE 15th January 1941 QUATUOR POUR LA FIN DU TEMPS at Stalag VIIIA Gorlitz by Messiaen and fellow musician prisoners Henri Akoka, Étienne Pasquier and Jean Le Boulaire. See review of concert 15th January 2025 HERE The memorial and visitor centre at the site of Stalag VIIIA Rodrigo De la Prida introduces Messiaen's Modes for Electric Guitar See Media page Tom's Messiaen vlog - Episode 1 Organist Tom Bell is keeping a video diary as he prepares Messiaen's Livre du Saint-Sacrement for a performance scheduled for November 2020. In his weekly vlog he will be exploring the learning process, the music itself, and the questions around how you perform it. Messiaen commissioned sculptor Josef Pyrz to create a work on St. François d'Assise see Gallery page St. François and a passing bluebird. A rare and happy flash by Jim Frazier. This sculpture was made by FRANK C. GAYLORD and is located in the city of CHICAGO-ILINOIS/USA. Special Offer! This Limited Edition publication explores the 20 year history of the Festival Messiaen au pays de la Meije. The book pays tribute to the commitment of its founder and artistic director, Gaëtan Puaud and editor/author Raphaëlle Blin highlights the artistic, social and political experiences that maintained and supported creative music making and activities in the landscape that was so dear to Olivier Messiaen. The 160 stunning photographs by Colin Samuels and the testimonies of the performers, composers, musicologists, volunteers and members of the public reveal all the uniqueness of this adventure. 1998-2018: born of the utopian idea of playing the work Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum for orchestra by Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) according to his wish, at the foot of the glacier in front of which he liked to compose, the Messiaen festival in the land of Meije has become an essential place of contemporary musical life, bringing together the greatest performers and composers. A book of more than 300 pages with magnificent photos and images by Colin Samuels , retracing the 20 years of the festival with many testimonies of artists and of festival-goers. With Swiss binding and soft cloth cover : a signed copy to the UK or anywhere in Europe for £31 or €35 including shipping. Any other country including USA and Japan: £36 or €40 includes shipping. Orders can be made directly from Colin Samuels via Paypal at: paypal.me/ColinSamuels Multiple copies or questions, please email Colin at: colinsamuels@yahoo.com Check out the 'writings and articles ' page that includes contributions from Père Jean-Rodolphe Kars ~ Thomas Lacôte ~ Nicholas Armfelt ~ Jeffery Wilson and more. In The Press In the Press READ MORE Reviews of events, concerts, books & CDs. Any contributions to this page would be welcome. So if you would like to submit a review of any Messiaen related feature please get in touch. Contact Us Thanks for submitting! Submit Contact Events etc. READ MORE © Copyright Events Concert Calendar ~ CD/DVD New Releases and more!!

Messiaen concert listings and CD releases Events, CD & DVD Releases Contact Us First Name Last Name Email Write a message Submit Thanks for submitting! Calendar Calendar 2025 Go to 2026 3 January 2025 1pm Charles Wooler, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. Emmanuel Church, Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield, UK. 4 January 2025 7pm Jeffrey Markinson, organ La Nativite du Seigneur, Lincoln Cathedral, UK. 5 January 2025 5pm Christof Pulsch, organ La Nativite du Seigneur. Zionskirche Bethel, Bielefeld, Germany. 5 January 2025 6pm Students from Prof Henry Fair's organ class, La Nativite du Seigneur. Pauluskirche Zehlendorf, Berlin, Germany. 6 January 2025 7.30pm Martyn Rales. organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. Lichfield Cathedral, UK. 6 January 2025 7pm Tobias Wittmann, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. St Fidelis, Stuttgart, Germany. 8 January 2025 8.15pm Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, pianos, Visions de l'Amen . Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 8 January 2025 6.30pm Martin Ford, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. The Guard's Chapel, London, UK 10 January 2025 time tba. William Campbell, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. Leeds International Organ Festival, Leeds Cathedral, UK. 12 January 2025 11am and 13 January 8pm Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg/Kent Nagano Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Couleurs de la cite celeste. Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany. 12 January 2025 5pm Radio Filharmonisch Orkest/Karina Canellakis, Les Offrandes oubliees . Konzerthaus Dortmund, Germany. 12 January 2025 6pm Students of the Ogan class of Prof Hetmut Deutsch, La Nativite du Seigneur. St Gebbard, Konstanz, Germany. 13 January 2025 1pm David Pipe, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. Huddersfield Town Hall, Huddersfield, UK. 14 January 2025 4.30pm Simon Hogan, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. Southwark Cathedral, London, UK. 15 January 2025 5.30pm Alexandra Grochowski will give a guided tour of Stalag VIII A. Then at 7.30pm Quartet for the End of Time will be performed on the anniversary and site of its premiere at the Stalag VIII A Görlitz memorial. Federico Kasik, violin, Nicolas Defranoux, cello, Robert Oberaigner, clarinet, Michał Francuz, piano. European Centre for Remembrance, Education, Culture – Stalag VIII A Memorial Görlitz, Germany. The festival with many stimulating events will then take place from April 25 to 27, 2025 in Görlitz and Zgorzelec. See here for more details. 15 - 16 January 2025 7pm Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Nicholas Collon Steven Osborne, piano, Cynthia Millar, ondes Martenot. Turangalila Symphonie . Helsinki Music Centre, Concert Hall, Helsinki, Finland. 16 January 2025 (8.15pm) & 19 January (2.15pm), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Simone Young, L'Ascension . Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 18 January 2025 8pm Barbara Hannigan, soprano, Bertrand Chamayou, piano, Chants de Terre et de Ciel. Cite de la Musique, Paris, France. 18 January 2025 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. FOURTH EUROPEAN MUSICAL SEASON OF THE BNF AND RADIO FRANCE. Concert - Yvonne Loriod. Florent Boffard and Roger Muraro , pianos, Three Pieces for two prepared pianos by Yvonne Loriod and extracts from Visions de l'Amen for two pianos by Olivier Messiaen . Francois Mitterrand Large auditorium. François-Mitterrand Library, Quai François Mauriac 75706 Paris Cedex 13, France. 19 January 2025 5pm Claudia Grinnell, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur . St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK. 19 January 2025 12.15pm Colin Andrews, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur . First Presbyterian Church, Franklin, IN. USA. 21 January 2025 7.30pm Gryphon Trio with James Campbell, clarinet. Quartet for the End of Time. Stude Concert Hall, Brockman Music and Performing Center, Houston, Texas, USA. 22 January 2025 5.30pm Elli Choi, violin, Esther Chae, cello, Isaac Parlin, piano, Juliyan Martinez, clarinet, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Julliard School, New York, USA. 26 January 2025 11am Hamburg Symphony Orchestra/Gergely Madras Magdalena Kozena, soprano. Poemes pour Mi . Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, Germany. 26 January 2025 11am Jacob Herling, violin, Madeline Echternacht, clarinet, Zack Ward, cello, Vearle Winkelmolen, piano, Quartet for the End of Time. Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, Kansas, USA. 26 January 2025 4pm Matthew Odell, piano, Noel, Le baiser de l'Enfant-Jesus, Regard de l'Esprit de joie from Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus . Eglise St. Merry, Paris, France. 27 January 2025 8.45pm Klimt Quartet, Calogero Palermo, clarinet, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Teatro Communale di Vicenza, sala del ridotto, Italy. 30 January 2025 7pm William Grynszpan.violin, Armand Witold Fessard, clarinet, Benjamin Grynszpan, cello, Sylwia Orzechowska, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Concert Reading: Olivier Messiaen and Primo Levi. Jewish Museum of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium. 31 January 2025 7.30pm CKW Trio, Ricardo Morales, clarinet, Quartet for the End of Time . Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, USA. 31 January 2025 8.15pm Brussels Philharmonic, Vlaams Radiokoor/Ilan Volkov, O sacrum convivium; Les Offrandes oubliees . Flagey, Studio 4, Brussels, Belgium. 31 January 2025 , 9pm, February 1st, 2025 , 5.30pm Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana/Jonathan Webb, Les Offrandes oubliees. Teatro Politeama, Palermo, Italy. 1 February 2025 9pm Peter Dyke, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur . Hereford Cathedral, UK. 1 February 2025 8pm Flemish Radio Choir Brussels Philharmonie/Ilan Volkov, O sacrum convivium; Les Offrandes oubliees . De Bijloke Muziekcentram, Ghent, Belgium. 2 February 2025 11.00 Raphaëlle Moreau Violin, Raphaël Sévère Clarinet, Edgar Moreau Cello, David Kadouch Piano, Quartet for the End of Time . Théâtre des Champs-Élysées15 avenue Montaigne, Paris, Île-de-France, 75008, France. 2 February 2025 3pm Robert Chen, violin, John Sharp, cello, Stephen Williamson, clarinet, Umi Garrett, piano, Quartet for the End of Time. Mandel Hall at University of Chicago, USA. 2 February 2025 4.30pm Students of the Organ class of Prof Dr Martin Sander, La Nativite du Seigneur . Maria Schutz, Munich, Germany. 2 February 2025 6.45pm Christopher Stokes, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. Manchester Cathedral, UK. 3 February 2025 7pm Rebecca Hardwick and The Hampstead Collective, Harawi. Hampstead Parish Church, London, UK. 7 February 2025 8pm Belgian National Orchestra/Fabien Gabel, Les Offrandes oubliees . Henry Le Boeuf Hall, Brussels, Belgium. 7 February 2025 7pm Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hannu Lintu Paavali Jumpanen, piano, Oiseaux exotiques . Helsinki Music Centre, Concert Hall, Finland. 8 February 2025 7pm Belgian National Orchestra/Fabien Gabel, Les Offrandes oubliees. Namur Concert Hall, Namur, Belgium. 8 February 2025 6.30pm Gabriella Jones, violin, Matthew Wilsher, clarinet, Samuel Ng, cello, Bertie Baigent, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. St Marylebone Festival, St Marylebone Church, London, UK. 8 February 2025 6.30pm Jacob Herling, violin, Madeline Echternacht, clarinet, Zach Ward, cello, Veerle Winkelmolen, piano, Quartet for the End of Time . Tonganoxie Terrace, Tonganoxie, Kansas, USA. 23 February 2025 3pm Lawrence Public Library, Lawrence, KS 24 February 2025 9.30am Bell Cultural Events Center, Olathe, KS 14 March 2025 7.30pm Swarthout Recital Hall, Lawrence, KS 26 March 2025 6.30pm Pane e Vino, Lawrence, KS 13 February 15 and 18 2025 7.30pm New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Karina Canellakis, Les Offrandes oubliees. David Geffen Hall, New York, USA. 13 February 2025 1.05pm Xiaowen Shhang, piano, La Fauvette Passerinette. Smith Square Hall, London, UK. 13 February 2025 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m Colloque: "Time, duration, music: meetings between Henri Bergson and Olivier Messiaen". t he Fondation de France the Olivier Messiaen Foundation and the Society of Friends of Bergson organize a colloquium bringing together prominent specialists, philosophers and musicologists, researchers and artists to try to clarify the importance of notions of time and duration, in the light of thought and works respectively Henri Bergson and Olivier Messiaen. The colloquium, organized in partnership with the La Grange-Fleuret musical Library and with the Conservatoire de Paris Cnsmdp contest, will be followed by a concert at 6:45 p.m. Information and registration: https://bergson.hypotheses.org/3750 . Music library La Grange-Fleuret, 11 bis rue de Vézelay, 75008 Paris, France. 15 February 2025 5pm Ueli Wiget, piano, Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus . House of Dea, Attic Room, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. 20 February 2025 7.30pm Vernon Regehr, Nancy Dahan, Christine Carter, Patrick Cashin. Quartet for the End of Time. D.F.Cook Recital Hall, Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada. 20 February 2025 3pm Parlando/ Ian Niederhoffer Sophiko Simsive, piano, Suzanne Farrin, ondes Martenot. Trois Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine . Kaufman Music Center, Merkin Hall, New York, USA. 23 February 2025 3pm Parlando: Mystic Chords, Parlando/Ian Niederhoffer Sophiko Simsive, piano, Suzanne Farrin, ondes Martenot. Merkin Hall, Trois Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine . Kaufman Music Center, New York USA. 23 February 2025 11am Masterclass with Michael Collins, clarinet, Paddington Trio and Robert Sholl. Quartet for the End of Time . Kings Place, Hall One, London UK. 23 February 2025 20.00 Drama on 3 Messiaen and the Birds. Poet Michael Symmons Roberts goes on a creative pilgrimage to get to the heart of Olivier Messiaen's obsession with birdsong, creating an imaginative sonic journey through drama, poetry and Messiaen's music. BBC Radio 3 - BBC Sounds. 24 February 2025 7.30pm Alexander Finlayson-Brown, piano, Raphael Herberg, cello, Eleanor Mackey, violin, William Rodgers, clarinet, Quartet for the End of Time . Clare College Chapel, Cambridge, UK 26 February 2025 7pm Finger Lake Trio (pre-concert talk at 6.30pm), Quartet for the End of Time . Suny Oswego Sheldon Hall, Ballroom, Oswego, NY, USA. 27 February 2025 19.30 Dominic Desautels, clarinet, Mark Lee, violin, Cameron Crozman, cello, Louise Bessette, piano, Quartet for the End of Time. Eglise saint-Viateur D'Outremont, Montreal, Canada. 1 March 2025 3pm Matthew Odell, piano. Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus: Noel and Regard de l'Esprit de joie . Steinway Showroom, San Francisco, California, USA. 5 March 2025 8.30pm Ex Novo Ensemble - Davide Teodoro, clarinet, Carlo Lazari, violin, Carlo Teodoro, cello, Aldo Orvieto. piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Chiesa di Santa Maria del Carmelo (Carmini), Venice, Italy. 6 March 2025 7.30pm BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Daniel Cohen, Les Offrandes oubliees. BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff, Wales, UK. 6 March 2025 7.30pm Sharon Kam, clarinet, Liza Ferschtman, violin, Christian Poltera, cello, Christian Ihle Hadland, piano, Quartet for the End of Time . Kaiserslautern, Fruchthalle, Kaiserslautern, Germany. 7 March 2025 6pm Sharon Kam, clarinet, Liza Ferschtman, violin, Christian Poltera, cello, Christian Ihle Hadland, piano, Quartet for the End of Time . Remagen Arp Museum/Barnhof Rolandseck, Germany. 7 March 2025 7.30pm The Seattle Serles: Efe Battacigil, Noah Geller, Jose-Franch-Ballester, Benjamin Hochman, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Women,s University Club - Grand Ballroom, Seattle, USA. 8 March 2025 7pm Sharon Kam, clarinet, Liza Ferschtman, violin, Christian Poltera, cello, Christian Ihle Hadland, piano, Quartet for the End of Time . Mainz Villa Musica, Germany. 9 March 2025 5pm Sharon Kam, clarinet, Liza Ferschtman, violin, Christian Poltera, cello, Christian Ihle Hadland, piano, Quartet for the End of Time .Neuwied-Engers, Schloss Engers, Germany. 9 March 2025 5.30pm and March 30th , 3pm Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio, violin, Walter Hanan, cello, Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet, Debra Ayers, piano, Vocalise (arranged by Graeme Steele Johnson for clarinet, violin, cello and piano); Quartet for the End of Time. Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM, USA. 13 March 2025 7pm Trio Zimbalist and Dionysis Grammenos, clarinet, Quartet for the End of Time. St Martin in the Fields, London, UK. 13 March 2025 1pm Boulez in Context: Challenging the Status-Quo - Tamara Stefanovich, curator/piano. Theme and Variations , Matteo Hager, violin, Bridget Yee, piano. Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus No 13 & 15 , Tomas Boyles, piano. David Josefowitz Recital Hall. Royal Academy of Music, London 14 March 6.30pm Cherry Ge, piano, Courlis Cendre, Book 7, No 13 from Catalogue d'oiseaux , Katherine Gregory, soprano, Tomas Boyles, piano, Harawi. Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London, UK. 13 March 2025 7.30pm Ensemble Mirage, Quartet for the End of Time. Grimsby Town Hall, Grimsby, UK. 16 March 2025 4pm Matthew Odell, piano, Noel, Regard de l'Esprit de joie from Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus. Parish Center for the Arts, Westford, MA, USA. 20 March 2025 2pm New Japan Philharmonic/Joe Hisaishi Hayato Sumino, piano, Takashi Harada.ondes Martenot, Turangalila Symphonie . Sumida Triphony Hall, Tokyo, Japan. 20 March 2025 7.30pm Jan Lisiecki, piano, Preludes. Herbst Theatre, San Francisco and March 21st, 2025 7.30pm The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, San Diego, USA. 20 March 2025 8.30pm Symphony Orchestra (CSO)/Juan Garcia Rodriguez, Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum . Cathedral of Seville, Spain. 22 March 2025 2pm New Japan Philharmonic/Joe Hisaishi Hayato Sumino, piano, Takashi Harada.ondes Martenot, Turangalila Symphonie. Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan. 22 March 2025 7pm Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Inventus Orchestra/Alexandr Iradyan, Les Offrandes oubliees . Witold Lutoslawski Polish Radio Concert Studio, Warsaw, Poland. 23 March 2025 7.30pm David Griffiths, clarinet, Dimitry Hall, violin, Julian Smiles, cello, Andrea Lim, piano. Quartet for the End of Time. UNSW Kensington NSW, Australia 23 March 2025 7pm Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia laventas Orchestra/Alexandr Iradyan, Les Offrandes oubliees. Witold Lutoslawski Concert Studio of Polish Radio, Warsaw, Poland. 23 March 2025 4pm Poppy Beddoe, clarinet, Henry Chandler, violin, Tim Lowe, cello, Jeremy Thurlow, piano, Quartet for the End of Time. Robinson College Chapel, Cambridge, UK. 26 March 2025 7pm Brussels Philharmonic/Patrick Hahn, Les Offrandes oubliees . KlaraFestival Brussels, Flagey, Brussels, Belgium. 27 March 2025 8pm Sharon Kan, clarinet, Liza Ferschtman, violin, Christian Poltera, cello, Enrico Pace, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Mendelssohn Hall, Dusseldorf, Germany. 27 March 2025 7pm March 29th 1pm OSIPN Symphony Orchestra of the National Polytechnic Institute/Vladimir Sagaydo, L'Ascension . Auditorium Eng. Alego Peratta, Jamie Torres Bodet Cultural Center, Mexico City, Mexico. 28 March 2025 8pm Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia/Jose Trigueros, Les Offrandes oubliees . Palacio de la Opera de A Coruna, Coruna, Spain. 29 March 2025 7.30pm Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, pianos, Visions de l'Amen. Mendelssohn-Saal, Gewandhaus, Leipzig, Germany. 29 March 2025 7pm Bristol Ensemble, Quartet for the End of Time. Bristol 1904 Arts Club, Bristol, UK. 29 March 2025 7pm The Fews Ensemble - Francesco Paulo Scola, clarinet, Joanne Quigley McParland, violin, Jonathan Aasgaard, cello, David Quigley, piano, Quartet for the End of Time. Harty Room, Queen's University Belfast, N Ireland. 30 March 2025 3pm Thomas Ospital, organ, L'Ascension . Cathedrale Notre-Dame-Immaculee, Monte-Carlo, Monaco. 5 April 2025 15.00 Janine Jansen Violin, Denis Kozhukhin Piano, Theme et Variations pour violin et piano, Konserthuset Stockholm: Stora SalenHötorget 8, Stockholm, 10387, Sweden. 5 April 2025 3pm Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra/Joel Sandelson Kathrin Lorenzen, soprano, Poemes pour Mi . Gothenburg Concert Hall, Gothenburg, Sweden. 5 April 2025 8pm Redwood Symphony Orchestra/Eric Kujawsky Lisa DiTiberis, flute, Peter Stahl. oboe, Ellis Verosub, cello, Delphean Quan, piano, Concert a quatre. Canada College Main Theater, Redwood City, CA, USA. 5 April 2025 7.30pm Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Piece pour piano et quatuor a cordes . First Church in Boston, Boston, USA. 6 April 2025 6pm Ben Aldren, clarinet, Ivana Jasova, violin, Marcus Michelin, cello, Ida Mo Schanche, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Fartein Valen, Stavanger Concert Hall, Stavanger, Norway. 6 April 2025 7pm Alina Ibragimova, violin, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, cello, Matthew Hunt, clarinet, Cedric Tiberghien, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, UK. 7 April 2025 20.00 Janine Jansen Violin, Denis Kozhukhin Piano, Theme et Variations pour violin et piano, Philharmonie de Paris: Grande salle Pierre Boulez221 Avenue Jean Jaurès, Paris, Île-de-France, 75019, France. 8 April 2025 8pm Lecture Concert by Gerhard Loffler (organ), Messiaen: Chants d'oiseaux . Main Church of St Jacobi Hamburg, Germany. 13 April 2025 2.45pm Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra/Joanna MacGregor, Joseph Havlat, piano, Cynthia Millar, ondes Martenot, Turangalila Symphonie . Concert Hall, Brighton, UK. 13 April 2025 3pm Bristol Ensemble, Quartet for the End of Time. Christchurch L.E.P., Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, UK. 16 April 2025 5pm Het Collectief - Julien Herve, clarinet, Wilbert Aerts, violin, Martijn Vink, cello, Thomas Dieltjens, piano. Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Espacio Torner, Castile - La Mancha, Spain. 17 April 2025 7.30pm Loya Symphony Orchestra/Guerassim Voronkov, L'Ascension . Benjamin Carrion Mora Theatre, Loja, Spain. 20 April 2025 8.15pm Alice Sara Ott, piano, Tomas Reif, violin, Sebastian Klinger, cello, Sebastian Manz, clarinet, Andrew Staples, visuals, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Grote Zaal, Tivoli Vredenburg, Netherlands. 20 April 2025 11am Andrew Haveron, violin, Mihai Marica, cello, Dean Newcomb, clarinet, Andrea Lam, piano, Quartet for the End of Time. Four Winds, Windsong Pavilion, Barraga Bay, South Coast, NSW, Australia. 21April 2025 5pm Christof Pulsch, organ, Les corps glorieux. Zionskirche Bethel, Bielefeld, Germany. 24 April 2025 6.30pm Lotte Betts-Dean, soprano Joseph Havlat, piano, Harawi. St Jude's, Balham, London, UK. MessTag The MESSIAEN-TAGE festival with many stimulating events will then take place from April 25 to 27, 2025 in Görlitz and Zgorzelec. See here for more details. 27 April 2025 5pm Pierpaolo Turetta, organ, Silvia Urbani, presentation, L'Ascension . Duomo dei Militari S. Prosdocimo, Padua, Italy. 28 April 2025 7.30pm Vincent Sucheana, Magdalena Morys, Lea Reutlinger, Christian Brandenburger, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. VENTANA, Cologne, Germany. 30 April 2025 7.30pm, Britten Sinfonia & Sinfonia Smith Square/Nicholas Daniel. Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. St George's Cathedral, Southwark, London, UK. 30 April 2025 7.30pm Daniel Kagerer, violin, Gabriel Wernly, cello, Gabriel Walter, piano,LanetFlores,Otero, clarinet, Quatour pour la fin du temps. Kirche Fraumunster, Zurich, Switzerland. 30 April 2025 8pm Dominik Susteck, organ, Apparition de l'eglise eternelle; L'Ascension . Kolner Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany. 1 May 2025 7.30pm Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovic, pianos, Visions de l'Amen . Kirche Fraumunster, Zurich, Switzerland. 1 May 2025 7.30pm Luanah Lefebvre, violin, Gemma Andrews, clarinet, Nicholas Trgstad, cello, Alex Wyatt, piano, Quartet for the End of Time . The Recital Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham, UK. Cancelled . This concert has been re-scheduled to the 17th June 1.05pm. 2 May 2025 6.30pm Pierre Laurent-Aimard, piano, Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus. Kirche Fraumunster, Zurich, Switzerland. 2 May 2025 6.30pm Isobel Archer, piano, Gabriela Corneau Gort, Ellena Hicks, Katrina Mackenzie, Tessa Tang, sopranos, Selections from Harawi. Royal Northern College of Music, Carole Nash Recital Room, Manchester, UK. 3 May 2025 8.15pm Sharon Kam, clarinet and Sitkovetsky Trio, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Concertgebouw: Recital Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 4 May 2025 3pm Principal musicians of Pacific Symphony, Quartet for the End of Time. Samueli Theater, Segerstram Center for the Arts, Costa Mesa, CA, USA. 4 May 2025 5pm and May 7th 6pm G-sharp Duo - Emilie-Anne Gendron, violin, Yelena Grinberg, piano, Fantaisie . Grinberg Classical Salon Series, Upper West Side, New York, USA. 5 May 2025 5pm Vladyslav Petryk, clarinet, Julija Hartig, violin, Maja Bogdanovic, cello, Antonii Baryshevskys, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Uilenburgersjoel, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 6 May 2025 8.30pm Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, MaitriseNotre-Dame de Paris/Catherine Larsen-Maguire Roger Muraro, piano, Nathalie Forget, ondes Martenot, Trois Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine . Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Paris, France. 7 May 2025 7pm Ham Simon Gutierrez Nunez,.violin, Nicola Vital, clarinet, Maria Iaiza, piano, Federico Pellaschiar, cello. Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Theater im Palais, Graz, Austria. 8 May 2025 8pm Orquesta de Extremadura/Sylvain Gasancon, Les Offrandes oubliees . Palacio de Congresos de Badajoz Manuel Royas, Spain. 9 May 2025 8pm Palacio de Congresos de Merida, Badajoz. 9 May 2025 7pm Les Essences, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Mayor's House, Essen, Germany. 10 May 2025 10pm Jens Thoben, clarinet, Elisabeth Weber, violin, Troels Svane, cello, Florian Uhlig, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Lubeck University of Music Great Hall, Germany. 14 - 15 May 2025 19:30 Suisse Romande Orchestra, Bertrand de Billy conductor, Kit Armstrong, piano, Cécile Lartigau, ondes Martenot, Turangalila Symphonie . Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland. 14 May 2025 8,15pm Marieka Blankestijn, violin, Emanuele Silvestri, cello, Julien Herve, clarinet, Hannes Minnaar, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Laurenskerk, Rotterdam, Netherlands. 16 May 2025 8pm Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Sir George Benjamin, Chronochromie; Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. Philharmonie, Paris, France. Cancelled For health reasons, George Benjamin regrets to announce that he has to cancel this concert. We will keep you informed when this concert is rescheduled. 16 May 2025 7.30pm The NEC Piano Studio of Meng-Chieh Liu, Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus . Williams Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston, USA. 16 May 2025 6pm Orchestra National Capitole Toulouse/Tarmo Peltokoski, Le Tombeau resplendissant. Halle aux Grains, Toulouse, France. 16 May 2025 8.15pm Orchestra de la Suisse Romande/Bertrand de Billy Kit Armstrong, piano, Cecile Lartigau, ondes Martenot, Turangalila Symphonie. Rosey Concert Hall, Rolle, Switzerland. 17 May 2025 8pm Gregorio Benitez, piano, Catalogue d'oiseaux (7 excerpts) . Palau de la Musica, Petit Palau, Barcelona, Spain. 18 May 2025 5pm Lotte Betts-Dean, soprano, Joseph Havlat, piano, Harawi .Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Octagon Chapel, Norwich, UK. 23 May 2025 7pm Gabby Diaz, violin, Sophie Shao, cello, Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano, Sergie Vassiliev, clarinet, Quartet for the End of Time .Ent Center for the Arts, Colorado Springs, CO, USA. 24 May 2025 6pm Orchestra National du Capitole du Touloiuse/Tarmo Peltokoski, Le Tombeau resplendissant . Halle aux grains, Toulouse, France. 27 May 2025 20.15 Members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Julie Moulin, Flute. Le Merle Noir. Concertgebouw: Recital HallAmsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands. 29 May 2025 6.30pm organist tba, L'Ascension. Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge, UK. 30 May 2025 12.30pm Donald Hunt, organ, L'Ascension . Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, Canada 30 May 2025 7.30pm Ensemble Kinari - Giacomo Del Papa, violin, Gianluca Pirisi, cello, Flavia Salemme, piano, Gabriele Mirabassi, clarinet, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Trame Sonore Festival, Palazzo Vescovi, Salone degli Arazzi, Mantova, Lombardy, Italy. 1 June 2025 (11am) & 2nd (8pm) Wuppertal Sinfonieorchester/Patrick Hahn Joonas Ahonen, piano, Thomas Bloch, ondes Martenot, Turangalila Symphonie . Stadthalle, Wuppertal, Germany. 1 June 2025 4.30pm Simon Hogan, organ, L'Ascension. Southwark Cathedral, London, UK. 2 June 2025 7pm Joshua Ryan, organ, Messe de la Pentecote. St Johm-at-Hampstead, London UK. 5 June 2025 18.30 Ji-Yoon Park Violin, Lilian Harismendy Clarinet, Éric Levionnois Cello, Catherine Cournot, Piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Bibliothèque nationale de FranceQuai François Mauriac, 75706 Paris, Paris, Île-de-France, France. 5 June 2025 8pm Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias/Nuno Coelho, Les Offrandes oubliees . Teatro Jovellanos, Gijon, Spain. 6 June 2025 8pm Auditorio Principe Felipe, Asturias, Spain. 6 June 2025 1pm Precise artists not specified, Quartet for the End of Time. Romsey Chamber Music Festival 2025 Romsey United Reformed Church, UK. 6 June 2025 7pm Isobel Archer, piano, Gabriela Corneau Gort, Elleria Hicks, Katarina Mackenzie, Tessa Tang, sopranos, Harawi. International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, UK. 7 June 2025 20.00 Jan Lisiecki Piano, Prélude no. 1: La colombe, Prélude no. 2: Chant d'extase dans un paysage triste, Prélude no. 3: Le nombre léger . Théâtre des Champs-Élysées15 avenue Montaigne, Paris, Île-de-France, 75008, France. 8 June 2025 10.15pm Chamber Music Festival Eibergen: Pour la fin du temps. Tim Brackman, violin,Pieter de Koe, cello.Rik Kuppen, piano, Jelmer de Moed, clarinet, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Chamber Music Festival Eibergen, Netherlands. 13 June 2025 19.30 Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Sylvain Cambreling, L'Ascension. National Concert Hall, Taipei, Taiwan. 17 June 2025 8pm Jean-Francois Heisser, piano, Petites esquisses d'oiseaux . Salle Dumoulin, Riom, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, France. 17 June 2025 1.05pm Luanah Lefebvre, violin, Gemma Andrews, clarinet, Nicholas Trgstad, cello, Alex Wyatt, piano, Quartet for the End of Time . The Recital Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham, UK. 18 June 2025 (7.30pm), 19th (7pm), 202th (7.30pm), Tonhalle Orchester Zurich/Franz Welser-Most Hendrik Heilmann, piano, Sept Haikai. Grosse Tonhalle, Zurich, Switzerland. 22 June 2025 11am Hamburg Symphony Orchestra/Sylvain Cambreling, Les Offrandes oubliees; L'Ascension (excerpts). Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, Germany. 26 June 2025 8pm Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovic, pianos, Visions de l'Amen. Ruhr Piano Festival, Geblasehalle, Duisberg, Germany. 26 June 2025 7.30pm American Modern Opera Company - Julia Bullock soprano, Conor Hanick, piano, Harawi. Lincoln Center's Summer for the City, Alice Tully Hall, New York, USA. 27 June 2025 9pm Lorenzo Soules, piano, Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jesus - 5 movements, Landschaftspark-Nord: Geblasehalle, Duisburg, Germany. 29 June 2025 7pm Symphoniker Hamburg/Sylvain Cambreling, Joonas Ahonen, piano. Des Canyons aux etoiles... .Laeiszhalle, Hamburg,Germany. 29 June 2025 8pm Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Alena Baeva, violin, Nicolas Altstaed, cello, Mark Simpson, clarinet, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Ruhr Piano Festival Geblasehalle, Duisberg, Germany. 3 July 2025 7.30pm Theresa Pilsl, soprano, Eric Schneider, piano, Harawi. GutHolzhausen, Nieheim, Germany. 7 July 2025 Granada Festival. Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Catalogue d'oiseaux. 10am Rodriguez-Acosta Foundation - Le Traquet stapazin; Le Bouscarle; Le Traquet rieur 12.30pm Church of Santa Maria de la Alhambra - La Buse variable; L'Alouette Calandrelle; Le Loriot; Le Merle blue 7pm Parador de Granada - Le Chocard des Alpes; Le Merle de roche; Le Courlis cendre 10pm Patio de los Arrayanas - La Chouette Hulotte; L'Alouette Lulu; La Rousserolle Effarvate. Granada, Spain. 9 July 2025 7pm organist tba. Messe de la Pentecote . Spitalfields music, Tower of London - The Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, London, UK. Messiaen Festival 2025: July 19-27 In La Grave, in the Hautes-Alpes and in Isère, the 2025 edition of the festival will honor two composers whose centenary of birth we are celebrating this year: Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio . Full programme 19 July 2025 - 6:00 p.m. Anne-Cécile Cuniot, flute, Antoine Ouvrard, piano, Acronym , Le Merle noir . Church of Saint-Théoffrey, Petichet, France. 19 July 2025 - 10:00 p.m. Broadcast of the film Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum , Des Canyons aux Etoile... – excerpt: Interstellar Call, recorded at the Messiaen Festival 2021 at the Glacier de la Meije (2400 meters) La Balcon, Students of the Institute of Higher Education in Music – Europe and the Mediterranean of Aix-en-Provence, Maxime Pascal, direction, Julien Ravoux, production and recording. Glacier de la Meije. 20 July 2025 21h00 Barbara Hannigan, soprano, Bertrand Chamayou, piano, Chants de terre et de ciel. Église de La Grave, La Grave, France 21 July 2025 11h00 Barbara Hannigan, soprano Conférence. Jardin du Lautaret, La Grave, France. 24 July 2025 - 17h00 Conférence: Messiaen / Boulez, une filiation fertile. Par Gaëtan Puaud, fondateur du Festival Messiaen au Pays de la Meije. Jardin du Lautaret, La Grave, France. 24 July 2025 21h00 Orlando Bass, piano, Catalogue d’oiseaux, extrait : La Rousserolle effarvatte . Église de La Grave, La Grave, France. 25 July 2025 17h00 Jean-François Heisser, piano, Jenny Daviet, soprano, Poèmes pour mi . Church of Saint-Théoffrey, Petichet, France. 27 July 2025 21h 00 Marie-Josèphe Jude, piano, Michel Béroff, piano, Visions de l’Amen . Église de La Grave, La Grave, France. 24 July 2025 11pm Christoph Poppen, violin, Aurelien Pascal. cello, Horacio Ferreira, clarinet, Silke Avenhaus, piano Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Marvao International Music Festival (Portugal) Igreja de Sso Tiago. 29 July 2025 9pm Roger Muraro, piano, Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus. Abbey Cloister, Thoronet Abbey, France. 30 July 2025 7.30pm Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Quatre etudes de rythme . Aspen Music Festival and School, Harris Concert Hall, Aspen, USA. 2 August 2025 4.30pm Orchestra/Timothy Weiss Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Couleurs de la Cite Celeste . Aspen Music Festival and School, Harris Concert Hall, Aspen, USA. 4 August 2025 12pm Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Catalogue d'oiseaux. Aspen Music Festival and School, Meadows Campus, Aspen USA. 5 August 2025 11am Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, pianos, Visions de l'Amen . Edinburgh International Festival, The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. 5 August 2025 7pm Inon Barnata, piano, Alan Gilbert, violin, Nicolas Altstaedt, cello, Ricardo Morales, clarinet, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . La Jolla Music Society, The Baker-Baum Concert Hall, La Jolla, CA, USA. 20 August 2025 7pm Kromatik Ensemble,Quartet for the End of Time . Edinburgh Fringe, Stockbridge Church - Church Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK 21 August 2025 7.30pm BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Karina Cannellakis, Les Offrandes oubliees. Edinburgh International Festival, Usher Hall, Scotland, UK. 22 August 2025 Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Quatre Etudes de rythme. Salzburg Festival, Stiftung Mozarteum -Grosser Saal, Austria. 31 August 2025 7pm Netherlands Radio Philhrarmonic Orchestra/Karina Canellakis, Les Offrandes oubliees. Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany. 20 September 2025 7pm ANAM Musicians/Steven Schick, Couleurs de la Cite Celeste. Australian National Academy of Music, Abbotsford Convent Rosina Auditorium, Abbotsford, VIC, Australia. 20 September 2025 8pm Sijie Chen, violin, Sacha Rattle, clarinet, Sam Haywood, piano, Quartet for the End of Time . Roman River Festival 2025 St Mary's Church, Dedham, CO7 6HJ, UK. 23 September 2025 8pm Busan Philharmonic Orchestra/Seakwon Hong, L'Ascension . Musikfest Berlin - Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany. 26 September 2025 8pm Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino/Min Chung, L'Ascension . Auditorium del Maggio: Sala Zubin Mehta, Florence, Italy. 17 October 2025 7.30pm Barbara Hannigan, soprano, Bertrand Chamayou, piano. Chants de Terre et de Ciel. HEMO-Haute Ecolede Musique, Lausanne, Switzerland. 1 November 2025 4pm MESSIAEN ROUNDTABLE Prof Christopher Dingle & Ensemble 360 exploring Quartet for the End of Time. Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield, UK. 8 6 pm- 9 2pm November 2025 NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Tokyo Opera Singers/Charles Dutoit Yu Kosuge, piano, Motoko Oya, ondes Martenot, Trois petites liturgies de la presence divine. NHK Hall, Tokyo, Japan. 12 November 2025 8pm Barbara Hannigan, soprano, Bertrand Chamayou, piano, Chant de Terre et de Ciel. Henry Le Boeuf Hall, BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium. 14 November 2025 7.30pm Barbara Hannigan, soprano, Bertrand Chamayou, piano, Chants de Terre et de Ciel. Mozart-Saal, Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria. 15 November 2025 7.30pm Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, pianos, Visions de l'Amen . Wigmore Hall, London, UK. 29 November 2025 2.15pm Radio Philharmonic/Karian Canellakis Cedric Tiberghien, piano, Cynthia Millar, ondes Martenot, Turangalila Symphonie. Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, November 30th, 2025 2,15pm, de Doelen, Rotterdam, Netherlands. 29 November 2025 2.15pm Sanne Hunfield, violin, Oliver Petey, clarinet, Honorine Schaeffer, cello, Nadezda Filippova, piano, Daniel Montero Real, Dancer, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Muziekgebouw aan't IJ: Main Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 3 December 2025 7pm St Luke's Chamber Ensemble, Quartet for the End of Time. The DiMenna Center for Classical Music - Cary Hall, New York, USA. 4 December 2025 8.15pm HIIIT I Solisti, Oiseaux exotiques . Muziekgebouw aan't IJ: Main Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 6 December 2025 7.30pm Barbara Hannigan, soprano, Bertrand Chamayou, piano, Chant de Terre et de Ciel . Wigmore Hall, London, UK. 7 December 2025 8.15pm i Solisti, HIIIT Clarinet Choir/Filip Rathe, Oiseaux exotiques . Nieuw Ketrk, The Hague, Netherlands. 9 December 2025 6.30pm Michael Bacon, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. Great Malvern Priory, UK. 9 December 2025 8.15pm Berry van Berkum, organ, La Nativite du Seigneur. Stevenskerk, Nijmegen, NL 17-18-19 December 2025 7.30pm Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle Magdelena Kozena, soprano, Poemes pour Mi, Book 2 Dvorak Hall, Prague, Czech Rep. 2026 Back to top 2026 12 January 2026 7.30pm, The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, New York, USA. 14 -15 January 2026 7pm Goteborgs Symfoniker, Damkor ur Goteborgs Symfonikers Vokalensemble/Barbara Hannigan (soloists tba). Trois Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine. Goteborgs Konserthus, Gothenburg, Sweden. 16 January 2026 7pm Klangforum Wien Orchester/Ingo Metzmacher Christoph Walder, horn, Johannes Purto, piano, Lukas Schiske, percussion, Alex Lipowski, percussion, Des Canyons aux etoiles... Grosser Saal, Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria. 18 January 2026 8pm Barbara Hannigan, soprano, Bertrand Chamayou, piano, Chant de Terre et de Ciel. Goteborgs Konserthua, Gothenburg, Sweden. 23 January 2026 7.30pm 25 2pm Tucson Symphony Orchestra/Jose Luis Gomez, Le tombeau respendissant . Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, Tucson, AZ, USA. 18 January 2026 4pm Elbphilharmonie Publikumorchester/Michael Petermann, Un sourire. Burgerhaus Wilhelmsburg January 24th , 8pm Elbphilharmonie Grosser Saal, Hamburg, Germany. 23 January 2026 (6pm), 24( 3pm), 2026 Goteborgs Symfoniker/Barbara Hannigan, Bertrand Chamayou, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (excerpt); Oiseaux exotiques. Goteborgs Konserthua, Gothenburg, Sweden. 23 January 2026 8pm Klangforum Wien/Ingo Metzmacher (soloists tba) Pre-concert talk 7pm. Des Canyons aux etoiles... Elbphilharmonie Grosser Saal, Hamburg 28 January 2026 7.30pm Axelle Fanyo, soprano, Julius Drake, piano, Trois Melodies; Selections from Poemes pour Mi . Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, New York, USA. 29 January 2026 7pm London Symphony Orchestra/Robert Trevino, Hymne . Barbican Hall, London, UK. 22 March 2026 11.30am Pavel Kolesnikov, piano, Samson Tsoy, piano, Alina Ibragimova, violin, Albaan Gerhardt, cello, Nicolas Baldeyron, clarinet, Theme et Variations, 3pm. Quatuor pour la fin de temps . Muziekgebouw aan;t IJ, Main Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 10 - 11 April 2026 8pm Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/ Simone Young Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano, Cynthia Millar, ondes Martenot. Turangalila Symphonie . Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, USA. 23 April 2026 7.30pm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko (soli tba), Turangalila Symphonie . Royal Festival Hall, London, UK. 29 April 2026 12.30pm Francois Sochard, violin, Daniel Mitaiksky, cello, Davide Bandieri, clarinet, Stephanie Gurga, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Salle Paderewski, Lausanne, Switzerland. 10 May 2026 6pm Basel Sinfonietta/Titus Engel, Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum . Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany. 14 & 15 May 2026 7.30pm The Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen Bertrand Chamayou, piano (ondiste tba). Turangalila Symphonie. Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark. 14 May 2026 , 8.15pm Marieke Blankestijn, violin, Emanuele Silvestri, cello, Julien Herve, clarinet, Hannes Minnaar, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Laurenskerk, Rotterdam, Netherlands. 19 May 2026 8pm Jorg Widmann, clarinet, Isabelle Faust, violin, Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano. Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany. 21 May 2026 7.30pm Jorg Widmann, clarinet, Isabelle Faust, violin, Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Schubert-Saal, Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria. 23 May 2026 8.15pm Isabelle Faust, violin, Jorg Widmann, clarinet, Jean-Guhen Queyras, cello, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Muziekgebouw aan't IJ: Main Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 28 May 2026 7.30pm Alan Berg Ensemble Wien - Sebastien Gurtler, violin, Florian Berner, cello, Ariane Haering, piano, Alexander Neubauer, cello, Quatuor pour la fin du temps . Schubert-Saal, Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria. 9 June 2026 5pm Renate Wirth, organ, Claudia Egold, readings, Messe de la Pentecote . St Johanniskirche, Berlin, Germany. CD/DVD Releases CDReleases Harawi - (Chant d'Amour et de Mort) - Live recording László Borbely piano Anna Molnár mezzo-soprano Hunnia Records HRES2427 January 20, 2025 In many ways, Harawi: A Song of Love and Death featuring Mezzo-Soptano Anna Molnár and pianist László Borbély on a Steinway Model D Concert Grand Piano, Hamburg, occupies a special place in the oeuvre of Messiaen. On the one hand, it places extreme demands on the two performers, often not in a purely technical sense, but even more in a spiritual, psychological sense. At the same time, to highlight the work’s humanly testing difficulty is to miss the point. The other aspect of the piece’s uniqueness is the composer’s style, which is a mixture of surrealism and sacredness, and which makes his musical language always unique and instantly recognizable. Catalogue d’oiseaux & Petites esquisses d’oiseaux Alfonso Gómez, piano. Messiaen saw birds as his greatest teachers, capturing their songs with passion and precision. His piano works, especially Catalogue d’oiseaux and Petites esquisses d’oiseaux, translate birdsong into rich, colorful music. Messiaen’s fascination with rhythm, color, and nature shaped his compositions, blending ornithology with spirituality. Alfonso Gómez delivers an astonishing interpretation on this recording, adding to his acclaimed discography for this label. As Messiaen himself said: “Nature, birdsong! These are my passions. They are also my refuge.” KAIROS 0022302KAI, 3CDs Released March 2025 Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus, Petites Esquisses d'Oiseaux Ciro Longobardi piano Piano Classics PCL10246 The third volume Ciro Longobardi’s Messiaen, after the universal critical success of Volumes 1 & 2, focusing on the composer’s best-loved piano cycle. With his Piano Classics collection of the Préludes, Quatre Études de rythme, La fauvette des jardins and other shorter works, Ciro Longobardi announced himself as a Messiaen pianist of remarkable imagination and accomplishment. The critics duly took note: ‘Longobardi showcases tremendous technical skill and an exceptional attentiveness Turangalîla Symphonie Yuja Wang · Cécile Lartigau Boston Symphony Orchestra Andris Nelsons DGG Streaming Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra join forces with pianist Yuja Wang and ondist Cécile Lartigau release their album featuring a stunning interpretation of Turangalîla Symphonie . The recording, recorded at Symphny Hall in Boston in April 2024, celebrates the 75th anniversary of the work's premiere on December 2, 1949. Of particular note is that it was also the Boston Symphony Orchestra that originally performed the work, commissioned by their pioneering music director Serge Koussevitsky Messiaen's Musical Universe Tom Bell performs Messiaen's cycles including La Nativité du Seigneur, Messe de la Pentecôte and the magisterial Livre du Saint Sacrement in its entirety at Blackburn Cathedral UK. In an accompanying documentary Tom explores Messiaen's life and compositions with biographer and scholar Christopher Dingle . There are als contributions from Thomas Lacôte, Carolyn Shuster-Fournier and Loïc Mallié at the organ of La Trinité in Paris where Messiaen spent a good deal of his working life as titular organist. The Seattle Symphony releases Des canyons aux étoiles… (“From the Canyons to the Stars…”) , which takes inspiration from the rock spires, birdsong and night sky of Utah’s national parks. With Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot at the podium and guest artist Steven Osborne on piano, the Symphony presents Messiaen’s starry-eyed journey through nature and the divine. Two concerts of the entire 110-minute-long work were recorded in the stunning acoustics of Benaroya Hall. Catalog Number: SSM1028 In their first release on harmonia mundi, Gustavo Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra offer us a dazzling reading of the Turangalîla-Symphonie . Equally attentive to architecture and to detail, they glorify the rich and refined orchestration of the French composer’s vast hymn to love, always on the lookout for unprecedented sonic alchemies. A unique musical and sensory experience! Marc-André Hamelan , piano Nathalie Forget , Ondes Martenot. HMM905336, February 2024 Soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Bertrand Chamayou unite to record the two major song cycles from the 1930's. Poèmes pour Mi are inspired by the precious relationship of Messiaen and “Mi” - the nickname of his first wife; violinist and composer Claire Delbos. Chants de terre et de ciel also emerges from Messiaen's marriage to Delbos, written just after the birth of their son, Pascal. Hannigan and Chamayou delve into the composer's complex language to reveal a natural and flowing music, whose roots extend from the earth upwards to a shimmering realm. As a final work on the album, Hannigan and Chamayou included a rarely performed "scena" of Messiaen: La Mort du nombre (1930) is a dialogue between two souls, in which they are joined by the Canadian tenor Charles Sy and the Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang . Release Date: 24th May 2024 Catalogue No: ALPHA1033 HeideVingtRe Groundbreaking New Release of Messiaen's Monumental Masterpiece New recording of Olivier Messiaen's monumental masterpiece for piano, Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant- Jésus, was released on the composer's birthday, 10 December 2023, brilliantly interpreted by the Danish-Swedish pianist Morten Heide. The release includes a well-written and beautifully illustrated 64-page booklet with insightful information about Messiaen and a comprehensive listening guide, crafted with both laypeople and musicians in mind, making this release truly unique. The album, includes a detailed booklet , and will be available both as a CD and digital format. Gateway Music is responsible for the physical distribution. Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus Telos , DDD, 2022 Release date: 4.10.2023 La Nativité du Seigneur Mark Steinbach - organ Mark Steinbach (Cavaille-Coll-Orgel Eglise Saint-Francois de Sales, Lyon) Label: Aeolus, DDD, 2022 Bestellnummer: 11605848 Release date 3.11.2023 Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps, Murail, Stalag VIIIa : Het Collectief ALPHA 1048 Release date: 23 Nov 2023 Souvenirs D'Oiseaux Roderick Chadwick - piano Roderick Chadwick has recorded the second volume in a series which presents Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux coupled with works which are linked either in style or subject matter. This follows the well-received issue of the first volume, entitled ‘La Mer Bleue ’which included Book 1 of the Catalogue. This double album is a continuation of Chadwick's journey through Messiaen's Catalogue d'oiseaux , the latest issue featuring Books 2 through 5, including the cycle's great centrepiece 'La rousserolle effarvatte' (The Reed Warbler), which evokes the sights and sounds of the Sologne region across a full day's span. Release Date: 14th Apr 2023. Catalogue No: DDA21240. Label: Divine Art Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus. Kristoffer Hyldig - piano KRISTOFFER HYLDIG is one of Denmark‘s leading pianists, recognized for his musicality and highly personal, sensitive approach. Known for his versatility, he is in demand as a soloist, as well as chamber musician and lied accompanist. He is a founding member of Messiaen Quartet Copenhagen, where his work comprises artistic programming as well as closely working with composers, commissioning, and premiering pieces. Recorded in Vor Frelser’s Church, Copenhagen during one of the most severe periods during the lock down by producer, recording & balance engineer extraordinaire, Preben Iwan. The album is recorded in the immersive DXD format. Our Recordings, 6.220.677-78. Release date: April 2023 Des canyons aux étoiles... Utah Symphony Thierry Fischer Jasin Hardink, piano Stefan Dohr, horn Keith Carrick, xylorimba Eric Hopkins, glockenspiel Hyperion Recording June 2022 Abravanel Hall, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA Release date: April 2023 HARAWI Marie Kobayasi, mezzo-soprano Fuminori Tanada, piano Recorded 09/2022 Maguelone- MAG 358-443 The Complete Organ Works. Recorded at the Cathedral of Toul to celebrate its 800th anniversary. The organist Pascal Vigneron is the mastermind behind a complete disc of Messiaen's organ scores recorded at the Cathedral of Toul. This project is special because it brings together students from music education institutions who have shared the different pieces. Forlane - FOR_816897. New Release of the Complete Messiaen Organ Works including a previously unpublished and unrecorded transcription 'Vie pour Dieu des Ressuscités', by organist Jon Gillock. see more here . RAVEN compact Discs Visions Pierre-Laurent Aimard , Tamara Stefanovich Olivier Messiaen , George Enescu , Oliver Knussen , Harrison Birtwistle Release Date: 23-09-2022 PTC: 5186957 Details here . See Review Oiseaux exotiques . Francesco Piemontesi (piano), Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Jonathan Nott Pentatone - PTC 5186949. Details here. O sacrum convivium Hildegard von Bingen , Sean Shibe , Chick Corea , Daniel Kidane , Moondog , Oliver Leith , Meredith Monk , Bill Evans , Olivier Messiaen , Shiva Feshareki , Julius Eastman Release Date: 26-08-2022 PTC: 5186988 Details here. Harawi Chant d’amour et de mort The Song Company , Amy Moore (soprano) , Antony Pitts (piano) Hyperion Records 1EMCDA Details here . Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus . Alfonso Gómez (piano) Kairos - 0015081KAI. Details here . Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Louange à l'éternité de Jésus) Fabien CHOURAKI (saxophone) Olivier DEKEISTER (organ) Visage- FR-95U Details here. Trois petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine Mädchenkantorei am Freiburg Münster Martina van Lengerich (Director) Motette-Psallite - MOT DCD 15025 The girls' choir at the Freiburg Minster under the direction of Martina van Lengerich present works by JS Bach, O. Messiaen, WA Mozart, F. Mendelssohn, D. Bartolucci and KA Arnesen. Raschèr Saxophone Quartet. Alfonso Goméz (piano) Fabienne Martin (Ondes Martenot) More information here Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus . Pi-Hsien Chen (piano) Aldila - DDD, 2005. Release date: 19th February 2021 Songs for the End of Time Vol.1. An intriguing take on Messiaen's famous Quartet made here into a quintet. Ben Russell (violin, voice) Brandon Ridenour (tumpet, voice) Yoonah Kim (clarinet, voice) Hamilton Berry (cello, voice) Greg Chudzik (bass, voice ) Available from Bandcamp Catalogue d'Oiseaux. László Borbély (Piano) Messiaen often chooses 'impalpable' as a performance direction. It is no accident; in his works we enter the visible and tangible transcendent through the intangibility of the invisible. We are faced here with something which is seemingly incompatible with our existence. MRC2004 Released 05/08/2020 From My Reel Club. see video preview here. Turangalîla Symphonie. Tamara Stefanovich (piano) Thomas Bloch (ondes Martenot) Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim, Alexander Soddy (conductor). Oehms : OC472 Release date: 18th September 2020 Poèmes pour Mi plus works by Saariaho, Dutilleux, Debussy and Delbos. Katherine Dain (soprano) and Sam Armstrong (piano) The majority of the program on this disc is written during a period on which the particular composer was facing daring circumstances. Like these two musicians were during the production of Regards sur l’Infini. ‘Views on the eternity’, having an outlook on the relief is an ever-present element on this album. Not able to pinpoint when a certain stressful era will end provoked us. We’ve consequently tried to relieve ourselves with a severe focus on our fascination about creating music. Just what the composers on this album did. And then, when it’s brought so heroic, resonant and immensely prepared and aware this duo does, music gives real freedom to the spirit. 7 Mountain Records 7MNTN-024 (release November '20) Quartet for the end of Time and Toru Takemitsu: Kathlein II. Jose Luis Luis Esteresu (Clarinet) Aizol Ituriaga Goitia (violin) David Apelianis (cello) Albert Rosado (piano). IBS Classical No. IBS72020. Releas date:09 July 2020 La Nativite Du Seigneur : Michael Frith, Organ of Brentwood Cathedral. Herald label HAVPCD414. Release date: 23rd October 2020 Divine Art Recordings is delighted to announce a new album of piano music from English pianist Roderick Chadwick . Alongside the first book from Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux are works by Karol Szymanowski and David Gorton. Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux for solo piano evokes the sights and sounds of the French landscape, exploring time and memory across its two and a half-hour span. The diversity of Messiaen’s imagination can be heard in the progression from the sharp, solitary cries of the alpine chough to the fanfares of the golden oriole and harmonious, sapphire-blue sea along the Roussillon coast, where the headlands (in the composer’s words) ‘stretch into the sea like crocodiles’. Release date October 2020.DDA25209 A rare recording has come to light by British conductor Reginald Goodall performing L'Ascension with the Royal Opera House Orchestra Covent Garden in 1961. Full details can be found on the Pristine Classical web site here . Preludes, La Fauvette Des Jardins, La Dame De Shalott: Haruka Miyazaki (Piano) Release date 10 November 2019 299Music HMV Japan here Harawi . Sarah Maria Sun (soprano), Stefka Perifanova (piano)Label: Mode Cat No: MODLP310 Format: LP Number of Discs: 2 Expected Release Date: 10th January 2020Includes 12-page book with complete lyrics plus extensive text on Harawi by Siglind Brun, including copious illustrations and musical examples. NB: there is no CD format release. THE COMPLETE VÉGA RECORDINGS 1956-1963 BY Yvonne Loriod Works by Mozart, Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, Aleniz, deFalla Berg, Webern, Schoenberg, Henze, Boulez, Barraqué, Stravinsky and Messiaen. 13 CDs album. Decca UPC 00028948170692 Charles Chaynes - Piano Concerto (1967 World Premier) Yvonne Loriod with the ORTF Chamber Orchestra Radio broadcast, France. Kipepeo Publishing. ASIN: B06Y286DZ7 First recording of Les Fauvettes de l'Hérault - Concert des garrigues (reconstructed by Roger Muraro - see below) Harmonia Mundi - HMM905304 together with Debussy's Études as part of the Debussy Centenary Edition. Renowned French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard kicks off his exclusive engagement to PENTATONE with a recording of Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux (1956-1958). The pianist had intimate ties to the composer himself and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, for whom Messiaen wrote the Catalogue. This is a truly pioneering and groundbreaking recording of Messiaen's masterpiece. Pierre-Laurent brings extraordinary naturalism to the music and his sonic painting takes the playing to another level of virtuosity. An incredible achievement. The luxurious CD box set contains an accompanying bonus DVD, on which Aimard shares his vast knowledge of and love for Messiaen’s work from behind the piano. PENTATONE PTC 5186 670 Jean-Rodolphe Kars performsVingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus. Recorded live by Dutch radio at a concert in the Kleine Zaal of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw on 30 April 1976 There have been many Messiaen pianists of note to perform and record his music during the last half-century, not least thanks to the composer’s generosity as a teacher of both the technical and spiritual aspects of his music, which go hand in hand as they do for very few others. Save for Messiaen’s second wife Yvonne Loriod, however, none of those pianists can claim so direct and profound an understanding of the composer and his music as Jean-Rodolphe Kars. This makes the present issue of a hitherto unreleased recording of the Vingt Regards all the more significant:. Olivier Messiaen Organ Works Willem Tanke One can not be grateful enough for the way one of the greatest composers of the 20th century contributed to the organ tradition. This playlist is a work in progress, i.e. it will include Messiaen's complete organ works in due time, also for educational purposes. Visit Willem's Official site for more interesting projects on Messiaen's organ works including 'Olivier Messiaen and the Cave of Forgotten Sounds' This project presents movements of Livre du Saint Sacrement interspersed wth responses and improvisations by Willem one of which is a tribute to Claire Delbos: In Memoriam Claire Delbos. Back to top

The life of Olivier Messiaen BioTop OLIVIER-EUGENE-PROSPER-CHARLES MESSIAEN (b. Dec. 10, 1908, Avignon, France.d. April 27, 1992, Clichy, near Paris), Olivier Messiaen was the son of Pierre Messiaen, a scholar of English literature, and of the poet Cecile Sauvage . Soon after his birth the family moved to Ambert (the birthplace of Chabrier) where his brother, Alain was born in 1913. Around the time of the outbreak of World War 1, Cecile Sauvage took her two sons to live with her brother in Grenoble where Olivier Messiaen spent his early childhood, began composing at the age of seven, and taught himself to play the piano. On his return from the war, Pierre Messiaen took the family to Nantes and in 1919 they all moved to Paris where Olivier entered the Conservatoire. From very early on it was clear that Messiaen would be a composer who would stand alone in the history of music. Coming not from any particular 'school' or style but forming and creating his own totally individual musical voice. He achieved this by creating his own 'modes of limited transposition', taking rhythmic ideas from India (deci tala), ancient Greece and the orient and most importantly adapting the songs of birds from around the world. He was a man of many interests including painting, literature, and the orient where he took in not only the musical culture but theatre, literature and even the cuisine of foreign countries! The single most important driving force in his musical creations was his devout Catholic faith. My first encounter with the music of Olivier Messiaen was as an impressionable fourteen year old who had just discovered Bach through Jacques Loussier and was listening somewhat idly to a BBC Radio 3 organ recital which concluded with this amazing sound world that was completely new to me and at the same time overwhelming. The piece I was experiencing was Dieu Parmi Nous (God Among Us) from La Nativité du Seigneur. Pierre Messiaen, Cecile Sauvage and Olivier Messiaen MESSIAEN AND SYNAESTHESIA This is what Messiaen had to say regarding his relationship with colours and synaesthesia " When I was 20 years old I met a Swiss painter who became a good friend by the name of Charles Blanc-Gatti , he was synaethesiac which is a disturbance of the optic and auditory nerves so when one hears sounds one also sees corresponding colours in the eye. I unfortunately didn't have this. But intellectually like synaethesiacs I too see colours- if only in my mind - colours corresponding to sound. I try to incorporate this in my work, to pass on to the listener. It's all very mobile. You've got to feel sound moving. Sounds are high, low, fast, slow etc. My colours do the same thing, they move in the same way. Like rainbows shifting from one hue to the next. It's very fleeting and impossible to fix in any absolute way. It's true I see colours, it's true they're there. They're musician’s colours, not to be confused with painter's colours. They're colours that go with music. If you tried to reproduce these colours on canvas it may produce something horrible. They're not made for that, they're musicians colours. What I'm saying is strange but it's true. I believe in natural resonance, as I believe in all natural phenomena. Natural resonance is in exact agreement with the phenomena of complimentary colours. I have a red carpet that I often look at. Where this carpet meets the lighter coloured parquet next to it, I intermittently see marvelous greens that a painter couldn't mix - natural colours created in the eye" Messiaen's particular condition was chromesthesia, a type of synesthesia in which sound involuntarily evokes an experience of colour, shape and movement. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of eleven and stayed until his early twenties learning his 'craft' from eminent teachers including Georges Falkenberg, piano, Jean Gallon, harmony, Noël Gallon counterpoint and fugue, professor Baggers, timpani & percussion, Paul Dukas composition & orchestration, Maurice Emmanuel history of music and Marcel Dupré organ and improvisation, of which Messiaen excelled, becoming organist of La Sainte Trinité in Paris when he was 22 and remained there until his death. It's sometimes easy to forget that Messiaens' contribution to the organ repertoire is probably the greatest since Bach. The term 'craft' is purposeful here as Messiaen developed into a true craftsman in every respect with immensely detailed scores including string bowing, woodwind articulations, fingerings for keyboards and even sticking for percussion. Since the age of eighteen Messiaen had been collecting the songs of thousands of birds throughout France and the world. Early works showed an inkling of birdsong influence but after the war in the late 40s and 50s he began notating their songs in great detail and this became a vital musical source for him. An important event in 1952 was his meeting with ornithologist and author Jacques Delamain of which Messiaen declared: 'It was Delamain who taught me to recognise a bird from its song, without having to see its plumage or the shape of its beak.' Messiaen would begin by selecting a bird, say a warbler where he would notate hundreds of different warblers and then creates a composite of the best elements of all the warblers notated thus ending up with an 'ideal' warbler. The song is usually combined with the birds habitat, surroundings and time of day. 'It's the process of transformation' that Messiaen enjoys and relates this to the paintings of Monet who is not interested in putting say a water lily directly on the water of a picture but representing one variation of the light on the water lilies. His researches were so intense that he became an authoritative ornithologist able to recognize almost any bird that he heard. Several works have been devoted entirely to birdsong namely Catalogue d'Oiseaux, Réveil des oiseaux, Oiseaux Exotique, Le merle noir, Petites esquisses d'oiseaux and almost all other works include substantial references to the songs of birds. At the age of 19 the young Messiaen witnessed the death from consumption of his beloved mother. He moved to his paternal aunts in the countryside of the Aube region of France where, in Yvonne Loriod's words, 'the aunts took their nephew in to revive his taste for life and restore his health with good country air whilst he continued to compose'. Messiaen married his first wife Claire Delbos in June 1932. The daughter of a Sorbonne professor, she was a member of La Spirale, a prominent new music society, an accomplished violinist and composer (works include Primevere 5 Songs for soprano and piano, Deux Pièces for Organ 1935, Parce, Domine {Pardonnez,Seigneur, à votre peuple... } pour le temps du Carême for organ and Marie, toute-puissance suppliante for 4 Ondes Martenots) she sadly became physically and mentally ill and entered a psychiatric hospital (where she eventually died in 1959) leaving Messiaen a single parent bringing up their only son Pascal (born in 1937 a teacher of Russian, died 31st January 2020) throughout the late 30s and 40s. Messiaen and Claire Delbos gave many recitals in and around Paris during the early 1930s featuring the Romantic repetoire for violin and piano and in 1932 he composed Theme and Variations for her and they premiered the piece at a concert held by the Société Nationale. A second work for violin and piano recently came to light entitled Fantaisie composed in 1933. His song cycle Poemes pour Mi is also dedicated to Claire Delbos, Mi being a 'pet' name for her. Both music and words were written by Messiaen and celebrates the joy and sanctity of marriage. Messiaen was to continue to write the texts for most of his choral and vocal works including the Trois Petite liturgies de la Presence Divine which caused some negative if not hostile reactions from many critics at the first performance. He believes that this reaction was due to the fact that the work is full of passion but with a deep religious foundation and this took the critics by surprise and much of the criticisms were not directed at the music. In 1936, with the composers Andre Jolivet, Daniel Lesur, and Yves Baudrier, he founded the group La Jeune France ("Young France") to promote new French music. From 1934 to 1939 he taught piano sight reading at the École Normale de Musique and an organ improvisation course at the Schola Cantorum. Undoubtedly it has been Messiaens' devout Christian faith and Catholicism that has driven his compositional output through the years and there was no greater test of his faith than in June 1940 when he was captured by the Nazis and interned in prisoner of war camp Stalag 8A, Gorlitz , Poland. He recalls that at the time he and everybody in the camp were freezing, starving and miserable. The starvation was such that it heightened his 'coloured' dreams and this coupled with the experience of seeing the 'aurora borealis', coloured waves of clouds, led him to compose what is probably his most performed work: Quatour pour la Fin du Temps (Quartet for the end of Time). He befriended a German officer Carl-Albert Brüll who smuggled him manuscript paper, pencil and eraser which enabled him to retreat to the priests block after morning duties and compose. The instrumentation was governed by the musician friends that were with Messiaen in the camp. These were; violinist Jean Le Boulaire , cellist Etienne Pasquier , clarinetist Henri Akoka and with himself on a rather dilapidated piano premiered the work on January 15th 1941 in front of fellow prisoners who although maybe never understood the new harmonies etc. it took them away from the routine mundane life in the camp. He says that his music 'is not "nice" - it is certain. I am convinced that joy exists, convinced that the invisible exists more than the visible, joy is beyond sorrow, beauty is beyond horror'. Golden Oriole (Loriot) © Malcolm Raines and Chris Knights He returned from captivity in March 1941 and became a teacher and lecturer at the Paris Conservatoire giving his first class on 7th May the same year. He held classes in analysis, theory, aesthetics and rhythm but it wasn't until 1966 that he was officially appointed Professor of Composition (although he had in effect been teaching composition for years). Many famous 'names' passed through these classes including Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, Alexander Goehr and later George Benjamin who Messiaen had a particular fondness and admiration of. Perhaps the one thing that rubbed off on all these composers is Messiaens' avoidance of regular metre citing it as artificial relating to marches and more popular music. Messiaen supports his argument by pointing out that in nature things are not even or regular. For example the branches of a tree and the waves of the sea are not even patterns. However, what is true is 'natural resonance', and this true phenomenon is what his music is based on. This period produced a great outpouring of music including the Trois Petite liturgies de la Presence Divine , the song cycle Harawi, Chant des deportes for choir and orchestra, Turangalila Symphonie , the mammoth piano cycles Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus and Visions de l'Amen for two pianos. These last two works and many more to follow were dedicated to Yvonne Loriod a young and highly gifted pupil who turned up in Messiaens' first class held at the Conservatoire in 1941. She says of that first encounter that 'all the students waited eagerly for this new teacher to arrive and finally he appeared with music case and badly swollen fingers, a result of his stay in the prisoner of war camp. He proceeded to the piano and produced the full score of Debussys' Prelude á l'apres-Midi d'un Faune and began to play all the parts. The whole class was captivated and stunned and everyone immediately fell in love with him'. Messiaen never imparted his own compositional techniques in his classes but rather steered students along their own paths. Messiaen has not always been in the favour of the musical establishment not least by the BBC who broadcast next to nothing on the then Third programme (later Radio 3) right up until the sixties by which time the composer was in his 60s. It was Felix Aprahamian who brought Messiaen to London in the late 30s to play La Nativite and has been a champion and formidable writer on Messiaen ever since. In the forties and fifties Messiaen was shunned on the one hand by the new 'avant-garde' as too sweet and sentimental and on the other hand by the more conventional musical public as too austere and discordant. Boulez in particular could not come to terms with and reacted against works like Turangalila with it's rich mix of tonal and atonal language saying that he prefers the ones that remain true to one style or the other. However, one gem of a composition was to turn 20th century music on its head. This was 'Mode de valeurs et d'intensites' part of four studies in rhythm for piano. It took Schoenberg's theory of serializing pitches a whole leap forward whereby Messiaen effectively serialized all musical parameters i.e. pitches, durations, dynamics and articulations. Thus each note has a character and identity all of its own which is maintained throughout the piece. For example, middle C will always appear as a dotted minim value, forte dynamic and have a tenuto articulation mark. Although this paved the way for the young generation of composers such as Stockhausen, Boulez, Nono etc. to explore previously uncharted territory, Messiaen himself never pursued the idea beyond that study but continued to turn to nature and his faith as the inspiration and starting points for his music continuing to use his own modes, complex rhythmic ideas and the songs of birds. Having said that, there are occasions when for instance he wanted to describe the horror and blackness of the night in the opening of " The Tawny Owl' from Catalogue d'Oiseaux where he uses a 'Mode de valeurs et d'intensites ' in a poetical sense to portray this. Indeed it must be said that Messiaen did more to advance rhythmic forms and ideas than any other composer of the 20th century. From the original programme of the first performance of Turangalîla Symphonie by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1949 Christiane Eda-Pierre in the role of the Angel: Saint Francois d'Assise Photo: Jacques Moetti In 1975 Messiaen embarked on his most ambitious project of his life, the opera Saint François d'Assise , a work that would occupy him for the following eight years. Saint François represents his life work combining all his compositional techniques gathered over fifty or so years. Scored for 22 woodwinds. 16 brass, 68 strings, 3 ondes Martenot and 5 keyboard percussions playing xylophone, xylorimba, marimba, glockenspiel & vibraphone. There are 6 percussionists playing tubular bells, claves, wind machine, snare drum, triangles,temple blocks, wood blocks, cymbals of various kinds, whip, maracas, reco-reco, glass chimes, shell chimes, wood chimes, tambourine, tôle (thunder sheet), gongs, tam tam, crotales tom toms and geophone (sand machine) together with 7 main solo characters and a choir of 150 it is certainly the largest forces Messiaen considered.Among the best essays on this work are Paul Griffiths' account in The Messiaen Companion and Messiaens' own comments in an interview with him. Soon after Messiaen's death I happened to be visiting Paris and felt the need to pay my respects at La Sainte Trinité, the church where Messiaen conceived so many of his great organ works. I was lucky enough to meet Father Yves de Boisrehen who for many years read the lessons etc. and said how he would be amazed when his words would suddenly 'come to life' for the congregation through the improvisations of Messiaen responding at the organ. Some would say 'an impossible act to follow' but in 1993 Naji Hakim entered that revered organ loft at la Trinité as successor to Messiaen. An accomplished composer and improviser, Naji Hakim was the one person Messiaen felt comfortable in the knowledge that the great French tradition of organist - composer and improviser would continue at la Trinité. Naji Hakim's reign came to an end in 2008 the centenary of Messiaen's birth. Thanks to today's mass audio market you won't have to scratch around as I did, finding recordings of the greatest French composer since Debussy. Fragments of Messiaen's music have found their way into several feature films including: Ken Russell's Dante's Inferno (Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum), the BBC documentary The Ascent of Man (also Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum), Oren Moverman's The Dinner (Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps) and Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant (Oraison-L'eau from Fêtes des Belles Eaux). Messiaen received many honours and prizes globally including: 1959 Nomination as an Officier of the Légion d'honneur 1967 Member of the Institut de France 1969 Calouste Gulbenkian Prize 1971 Erasmus Award 1975 Ernest von Siemens Award 1975 Associate Member of the Royal Academy of Science, Literature and Art of Belgium 1975 Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society 1978 The White Cliffs in Utah were renamed Mount Messiaen 1980 Presentation of the Croix de Commander of the Belgian Order of the Crown 1983 Wolf Foundation of the Arts Prize (Jerusalem) 1985 Inamori Foundation Prize (Kyoto) 1987 He was promoted to the highest rank, Grand-Croix, of the Légion d'honneur 1989 Primio Internazionale Paolo VI 1988 Back to top

Reviews of Messiaen concerts, CDs, Books etc. CONCERT REVIEWS © Copyright protected InPressTop Boulez at 100 BBC National Orchestra of WalesDaniel Cohen, conductor, Ava Bahari, violin, Matthew Featherstone, flute.Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millenium Centre, Cardiff. 6 March 2025 The big 100 is almost here for Pierre Boulez. One of Messiaen's most notable students, Boulez would never shy away from scaving criticism of his teacher. Boulez, who passed away in 2016, has left a mark on music, though he should have acknowledged Messiaen more. A worry is that the remarks overweight his musical offerings.Here the pupil and master come together for a celebratory concert, with others along for the ride. Due to a cladding crisis at St. David's Hall,the BBC NOW have moved all their concerts to the Hoddinott Hall for the time being. A string ensemble was the opener, that of Boulez's Livres pour cordes . What must be said of Boulez is though he has a reputation for being radical and serious in nature, his music is approachable, rare for his contemporaries. The string fibre in Livres pour cordes can very easily topple over into harsh terrains, yet never does. It's the almost gentle approach and the craftsmanship that is noteworthy. Perhaps a perfect introduction. Alban Berg's Violin Concerto followed. Thanks to violinist Ava Bahari, the piece still keeps its secrets in a performance that fascinates. The atonality and other meshing forms are easy going, the famous opening scale sounds deceptively simple. There is drama and puzzles, the piece 'Dedicated to an angel', that of Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Mahler, it being his last completed composition. Bahari handles it well, the maintenance of it throughout is angular and at times cloud like. One wonders of the compositions we didn't get from Berg. Boulez was back and his Memoriale proves his cleverness. With the orchestra's principal flautist Matthew Featherstone as soloist, a small band of players added to the fray. Alluring in nature, it was slight and continued the mellow plane. Matthew is great in all eras, this passion would wrap up Boulez for the night, you craved more after these appetisers. A brief outing of Messiaen saw his Les Offrandes oubliées follow. His earliest orchestral composition displays his life long religious inspiration. Three short movements blend masterfully, tropes and styles we'd hear for decades to come. Pounding brass, wistful strings and subdued winds are the highlights. Fitting Wagner would conclude: the Prelude und Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde. Conductor Daniel Cohen, who was grand all evening got to an intense sphere, the throbbing and agonies of the score glowing. The strings have to be solid here and they truly were. The orchestra, with the scope of full programme proved their talents, as if that ever needed to be questioned. Out of all their recent concerts this has proven the most fruitful. Listen out on Radio 3 in April, then BBC Sounds for 30 days © James Ellis Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps at Stalag VIIIA Görlitz 15th January 2025 I arrived in the afternoon that gave me plenty of time to wander around the site in daylight, before the events at the centre began to take place at 5.00pm by which time darkness had fallen. Back in 2008 the 'concert' performance took place in quite basic conditions under canvas, but in 2015 the European Centre for Remembrance, Education and Culture, Meetingpoint Memory Messiaen was established at the camp, that houses an exhibition space, and an extensive learning environment. Although not designed as a concert venue per se, it was perfectly suited to the performance of the Quartet, and the intimate space worked very well both acoustically and artistically. The first movement 'Liturgie de Cristal' maintained a beautifully subtle pictorial dawn landscape with convincing clarinet bird calls, and finely focused glissando harmonics from the violin and cello conjuring the gossamer-like threads of a spiders web, all cushioned by Michał Francuz's exquisite touch in the halo of harmony on piano. Throughout, Robert Oberaigner demonstrated confident command and a compelling sense of spontaneity on clarinet not least in the solo clarinet movement 'Abîme des oiseaux' where the challenges are not in the bird calls, but in the dynamic echo phrases and long held tones. On the south-eastern outskirts of the twin cities of Görlitz (Germany) and Zgorzelec (Poland) lies the former prisoner of war camp Stalag VIII A. where 120,000 prisoners of war from various nations were registered between 1939 and 1945, and an estimated 12,000 did not survive. Many of them were assigned to work commandos and thus played a decisive role in shaping the Görlitz cityscape. Since 2008 the organisations: Meetingpoint Memory Messiaen (Germany) and Foundation for Remembrance, Education and Culture (Poland) set up a yearly concert event to commemorate the first performance of Messiaen's Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps that took place in the camp theatre block on the 15th January 1941. Since 2008 I promised myself the trip to Poland to attend this event. That promise was finally fulfilled this year on the 15th January. Of course, to finally arrive at the sight where Messiaen's Quartet took place was exceptionally moving. Eight metal sculptures by the artist Matthias Beier inspired by Messianen’s quartet, and representing each of the eight movements are placed at strategic points around the camp. This is movement 2: Vocalise, for the Angel Announcing the End of Time. 'The power of this mighty angel, a rainbow upon his head and clothed with a cloud, who sets one foot on the sea and one foot on the earth'. ©M.Ball The historical genesis of the Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps is now widely documented and Messiaen's own wildly exaggerated recollections have been duly unpicked, but an interesting fact revealed itself in the very fine and detailed writing of Jerzy Stankiewicz in his book - 'Olivier Messiaen, man and artist in Stalag VIII A in Görlitz '. He sites that records and documents, including a hand written program leaflet (left), shows that a "Polish Evening" of music and poetry was organised by the Polish writer and poet Zdzisław (Rudolf) Nardelli in December 1940 and included five pieces by Messiaen that were interspersed with readings. These 'pieces' would later form five movements in the Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps. The artists for the performance this year were: Federico Kasik – violin, deputy 1st concertmaster of the Staatskapelle Dresden, guest professor at the Music Academy in Lviv (UKR) Nicolas Defranoux – cello, soloist of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, studied in Reims and Paris (FR) Robert Oberaigner – clarinet, principal clarinettist in the Saxon Staatskapelle Dresden (DE) Michał Francuz – piano, soloist and professor at the Music Academy in Poznan (PL) ©M.Ball The fifth movement, 'Louange à l'Eternité de Jesus' calls for an extremely slow tempo scored for cello and piano that was played with great tenderness and expressive intent by Nicolas Defranoux whose tone and intense vibrato was unutterably moving. The companion eighth movement, 'Louange à l'Immortalité de Jesus' began with restraint and poignancy, and Federico Kasik did much to draw us in to the broad breadth of phrase, and the ascent to infinity was well measured if lacking just a little warmth of tone in places. It was these movements (solo and duets) that the musicians exceled. The ensemble movements were persuasive with some incisive passagework in movement six, 'Danse de la Fureur, pour les Sept Trompettes', but I feel that the Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps becomes more spiritually unique when tackled by established 'ensembles' that have worked many months on the piece and are fully attuned with Messiaen's musical language and spiritual intent. That said, the experience of hearing this work at the site of the premiere performed by the composer and three fellow prisoners in 1941, will stay with me forever. © M. Ball Des Canyons aux Étoiles... BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Ludovic Morlot, conductor, Steven Osborne, piano, Martin Owen, horn, Paul Patrick, xylorimba, Tim Williams, glockenspiel. Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK. 12 December 2024 The period 1964 to 1974 was a time when Messiaen’s personal life finally reached a calm serenity after years that were shrouded by the tragedy of his first wife Claire Delbos’s debilitating illness and the legal complications after her death in 1959. Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod were married in 1961, but it was to be a further three years before he finally moved house to join Loriod in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. Commissions came in thick and fast including three of Messiaen’s important achievements: ‘ Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum’, ‘ La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ’ and ‘ Des Canyons aux étoiles…’ Three works that contain radical inventions in orchestral (and choral) writing. Commissioned by Alice Tully, patroness of the Chamber Music Society of New York to mark the bicentennial of the United States, being celebrated in 1976, Des Canyons is scored for a modest (by Messiaen’s standards) sized orchestra but retaining his beloved spread of exotic percussion instruments. There are solo parts for piano, horn, xylorimba and glockenspiel, that all contribute to the realisation of the numerous birds that he notated on a trip to Utah in 1972. The work is a testament to Messiaen’s genius as an orchestrator, as few others could, or would dare to conjure the vast chasms of Bryce Canyon and the stupendous splendour of Zion Park or Cedar Breaks with fairly limited orchestral numbers. The score bristles with new timbres, colourful instrumental combinations and highly original usage of conventional orchestral sounds. The very opening movement (Le désert ) begins with a thematic horn chant, that leads into sporadic birdsong on woodwind and the three keyboard instruments followed by the tinnitus inducing static sound of bowed crotales, violin harmonics and high register piccolo – a pure natural soundscape that transports the listener to the wild west’s unforgiving heat of the Utah deserts. The twelve-movement work is a homage to the extraordinary beauty of the earth, the stars and onward towards Eternity. Ludovic Morlot and the BBC Phil rose magnificently to the occasion with superb sonic balance within the ensemble and a wide colourful palette of dynamic nuances. Steven Osborne is now a seasoned Messiaen-ic pianist, and this was clearly demonstrated in the two solo piano movements of fiendishly tricky birdsongs. Martin Owen mesmerised us all in the solo horn movement (Appel interstellairé) where he played the hall acoustic and the audience with jaw-dropping technical facility throughout. Paul Patrick and Tim Williams provided glittering gloss to what was a spellbinding performance from all onstage culminating after 90 or so minutes with what Messiaen described as ‘ Over a chord of A major (Immutable like Eternity) on the strings, the bells ring out their resonance with the ultimate joy!’ They certainly did in the Bridgewater Hall on Thursday. ©M.Ball Photos © Chris Payne TURANGALÎLA SYMPHONIE BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Nicholas Collon, conductor, Steven Osborne, piano, Cynthia Millar, Ondes Martenot. The Proms Royal Albert Hall, London. 30 July 2024 Whenever The Proms put on the Turangalîla-Symphonie , it usually stands out in the full programme of the festival. With the only piece by Messiaen heard this year, the BBC Philharmoic took on the challenge. Beforehand we got a real treat. London's Anna Clyne got a world premiere with The Gorgeous Nothings . Taking the crisp, blunt, dash-heavy poetry of Emily Dickinson, The Swingles, a most wonderful set of singers wowed with crystal like harmonies. It was the total adoration of folk melodies that really shone, that familar American airyness. The merry orchestra were very much second place, though some thoughtful moments for the vibraphone stood out. A mounted bike with spokester clips on its wheels a strange site in the percussion section for sure. A stand out of the festival so far. On to the main event. I heard Turangalîla live at least seven time before, for the first time back in 2006. I was taken with parts of this performance, but I can honestly say I've heard it done better. It's an all consuming piece, its demands are unwavering on all involved. Conductor Nicholas Collon grappled with the meaty oddity, unafraid to swoop and swoon throughout. Pianist Steven Osborne took on the demands his role with an assured power, his music easily the most discordant out of the lot. A dizzying display in his solos or gleaming trios with celeste and keyed glockenspiel, he never disappoints. Homestay Cynthia Millar on the ondes Martenot is everything the role demands, not so much impassioned playing as making sure the instrument works and is clear throughout. My plus one had never seen the ondes before and was highly curious. We were both sat the other side of the hall and she told me it's sound was not always clear. Digesting the ten movements is always a thrill, and I've recently pondered if the the sound could be considered camp? Messiaen's complete lack of irony would disprove this, yet the rigid seriousness is what might prove this. The interstellar pondering, searching romances and clear eroticism were on dazzling display. Through the heat of the hall, this audience felt extremely taken with this offering. I wonder if I have over exposure to it? I noted a percussionist on cymbal duty in the eighth movement, Dévelopment d'amour , was a little late, but despite a few quips it was a fine performance. I just wonder if the sound of the Albert Hall can on occasion dampen the work. Though the piercing crescendos would certainly disprove this. ©James Ellis Photo credit: BBC/Chris Christodoulou La Mort et la nouvelle vie from Saint François d'Assise & La Fauvette Passerinette David Josefowitz Rectial Hall & Angela Burgess Rectial Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London 13th June 2024 The Summer Piano Festival is a busy few days at the Royal Academy of Music . There is always something exciting and The Art of the Piano Transcription proved this. Hosted by Professor Mei-Ting Sun, he spoke of how impressed he is with his students, blessed with overflowing talent and a mastery in their technique of transcription. Staggeringly, Julian Chan took it upon himself to arrange the finale of Messiaen's leviathan Saint François d'Assise . You wouldn't think it was possible really, the orchestration alone took an eye watering four years to formulate. Chan wowed with a well handedly reining in of the mass of orchestra, chorus and soloist. There remained many shimmering, flashing colours ever present, Chan's cataclysmic playing saw Henry Cowell like tone clusters, a rampant, storm like conjuring physicality and a rhythmic vitality that the composer demands. The final few bars of extreme crescendo was a feat and quite flooring. It's almost as Chan could take on the whole opera. Later, the afternoon of Piano, Multimedia, Film opened yet again with Messiaen. Audiovisual artist Kathy Hinde has collaborated with the pianists in creating their own film work to complement their playing. Xiaowen Shang played La Fauvette Passerinette , the rediscovered and arranged from Peter Hill, work of Messiaen's. Quite harsh yet, profound in nature, the birdsong of the Subalpine Warblers and the artwork of Hieronymus Bosch were the inspiration. Shang drudged through the density, bringing alive what works so well in the twisted birdsong. This stirring playing was met with less than rewarding video work. The imagery of Bosch is screen wiped and contorted in a fairly easy exercise in media maker effects. Its cues matched the attacks of the score, and it worked to the best of its abilities. © James Ellis Saint Francois d'Assise Grand Theatre Geneva, Switzerland 11- 14- 16 - 18 April 2024 Musical Director, Jonathan Nott, Saint Francis Robin Adams, The Angel Claire de Sevigne , The Leper Ales Briscein , Brother Leo Kartal Karagedik , Brother Masseo Jason Bridges . Staging, Scenery, Costumes and Video, Adel Abdessemed , Lighting, Jean Kalman, Dramaturgy, Stephan Müller , Choral director, Mark Biggins . Choir du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Choir le Motet de Genève, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande . Ondes Martenot, Thomas Bloch, Jacques Tchamkerten and Caroline Ehret . After weeks of rain and unseasonably cool weather, the sun shone brilliantly over Geneva’s Grand Theatre on the 14th April, and the equally dazzling interior décor was indeed something to behold, although far removed from the subject material that awaited us in the form of Messiaen’s St. François d’Assise. This production, and another in Hamburg, were scheduled for performance nearly four years ago, but had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic (both productions will/have taken place this year). From the opening first scene (tableau) La Croix, Adel Abdessemed’s artistic personality was clearly apparent combining a unique blend of staging, scenery, costume and video in a sometimes naive and simplistic way that often mirrored Messiaen’s own approach to the score and libretto. As in many previous productions, most of the action takes place downstage due to the huge orchestral and choral forces required by Messiaen’s score – 119 orchestral players and a choir of 150. Abdessemed chose to drop in one or two huge circular screens to project images and videos pertinent to each tableau. While these images were extremely effective, the screens did just hamper some higher frequency detail and balance from the orchestra behind at times. Nonetheless, the all-important three Ondes Martenot’s were clearly defined and placed at the front left, centre and right of the orchestra ensuring clear spacialisation throughout. Abdessemed’s contemporary 21st century approach was successful in combining the secular aspects of modern-day recycling such as the Frère’s robes adorned with old portable CD players and domestic technological paraphernalia and the Leper draped in plastic refuse bags and light bulbs, with the 13th century fresco of the monastery and a huge replica of the Italian church on Mount Verna in the Stigmata scene. Messiaen’s (and St. François’s) birds got top billing as expected with a giant dove splashed with blood? and mounted on a mound of stones dominating tableau six, and one screen was devoted to a single looped video of an urban pigeon chosen by Abdessemed as the bird most familiar to him from his Paris home. This animated image was often, but by pure chance, in synchronisation with some of the orchestral rhythmic episodes in tableau six, The Preaching to the Birds, and it was at the end of this scene that Abdessemed ‘levitated’ St. François above the stage rather than at the end of the opera as several productions in the past have opted. Talking of levitation, one must not forget the ascending camel presumably representing the farewell to all God’s creatures and possibly a nod to Stockhausen’s Camel Dance in Mittwoch aus Licht! The Kissing of the Leper scene was suitably expressive if not quite as movingly gripping as it might be, but Ales Bricein made the most of his miraculous freedom dance. Claire de Sévigné’s Angel was rather more terrestrial than heavenly, dressed in a plain white dress and lacking some of the Zen-like quality Messiaen intended, but her vocal delivery was refined and poignant with expressive intimacy. She made good use of two wing-like accessories that were coloured as the original design suggested by Messiaen. Robin Adams took on the role of St. François with nonchalant authority with liquidity of the phrasing that was often impressive. There were just signs of vocal fatigue towards the final pages of his role, but this somewhat added to the drama and impending conclusion. A strong supporting cast of Brothers performed with committed intensity and individual characterisation, and the wonderful Suisse Romande orchestra under Jonathan Nott’s ebullient musical direction captured the score with vivid immediacy. The last word, or should I say notes must go to the choirs of Choir du Grand Théâtre de Genève and Choir le Motet de Genève who sang immaculately throughout and filled the entire front of stage in the final chorale of Joie! (see photos here ) St. François d'Assise in Stuttgart 11-22-25 June, 2 - 9 July 2023 Staatsoper, Stuttgart Titus Engel Conductor, Anna-Sophie Mahler Director, Katrin Connan Set Designer, Costume Designer, Janine Grellscheid Video, Georg Lendorff Lighting. Ingo Gerlach Dramaturgy. Staatsorchester Stuttgart Staatsopernchor Stuttgart. Michael Mayes Baritone Saint François, Beate Ritter Soprano L'Ange, Gerhard Siegel Tenor Frère Ellie, Elmar Gilbertsson Tenor Frère Massée, Moritz Kallenberg Tenor Le Lépreux, Danylo Matviienko Baritone Frère Léon, Thomas Bloch , Ondes Martenot, Jacques Tchamkerten , Ondes Martenot, Caroline Ehret , Ondes Martenot ©Martin Sigmund To say that putting on a production of St. François d'Assise is ambitious for any opera house is an understatement, but to put on a production and decide to move an entire Act from the opera house to a park area then back again might seem to some, downright foolhardy. Either way that is just what Anna-Sophie Mahler planned for the Staatsoper Stuttgart production that spanned five performances spread over almost a month. Each performance schedule began with a pre concert talk at 1.15pm in the sumptuous grandeur of the first balcony foyer of the opera house, then the performance began in the theatre at 2.00pm with Act I Tableau 1, 2, and 3. (La Croix, Les Laudes and Le Baiser au Lépreux ). Then a tram transfer would take the audience to Löwentobrüke park area where a walk of 1.5km took them to Wartberg while listening to Act II tableau 4 (L'Ange voyageur ) on personal headphones that was recorded prior to the performances. At 6.00pm Act III began with tableau 5 and 6 (L'Ange musicien and Le Prêche aux oiseaux) on the Killesberg open air stage. A return trip by tram to the city centre opera house would give time for a light meal before Act IV tableau 7 and 8 (Les Stigmates and La Mort et la nouvelle Vie) began at 9.00pm. So this took an already lengthy 5 hour opera to 8 hours! HOWEVER, there was a plan B should the weather prove inclement, which was the case on my visit on the 22nd of June. Instead of tram journeys across town, we made a short walk from the opera house to the nearby St, Eberhard's church where a talk and musical demonstration was offered and then we could listen to tableau 4 over headphones in the relative comfort of the church. While I applaud the Staatsoper for their creative thinking and the pilgrimage with Messiaen to bring nature into the opera house, I felt a little uncomfortable with the rearrangement of tableaus 4 and 5, but everything was superbly organised with excellent and helpful staff on hand throughout, as well as some Messiaen Angels guiding us through the park to the church(see photo) . A 'sustainability' theme was adopted from the outset and ‘following a public appeal by Staatsoper Stuttgart, over 300 hoodies were received as donations as costumes. In addition, the Staatsoper distributed knitting kits to interested people who wanted to knit parts of the stage set at home.’ This worked surprisingly well giving a sense of the 13th century rural life of St. François alongside 21st century attitudes and inclinations in the dramaturgy. There were some effective lighting and video imagery on display to remind us of Messiaen's thought processes and these were combined to great effect in the Stigmata scene where the choir were writhing from rear to front stage while being projected on the ceiling at the same time (see photo ). Lighting and costume also played off each other in the 'Angel' scenes. In this production the Angel took on the identity of a brightly coloured dragonfly and the reflective costume was impressive and dazzling as it caught the lights at different angles. The dragonfly element was carried through in the Death and New Life tableau 8 with video projections of a chrysalis morphing into a fully formed insect superimposed at the front of stage while St. François ascended to heaven as one or the same (see photo ). Titus Engels conducted with great precision, and the orchestra responded well despite a few rough edges and a slight lack of experience in Messiaen's bird language. Having said that, my musician friends who were performing, thought that the Sermon to the Birds tableau was all the more moving in the open air version, combining 'live' birds with Messiaen's birds. Michael Mayes (St. François) delivered a heart and soul performance with some (literally) hands on communication with the audience while maintaining the humble spirituality that is so important in the work. I believe that all of the friar brothers were new to the work, except Gerhard Siegel, tenor Frère Ellie, (who performed the role in Madrid 2011) and all gave sterling performances. Moritz Kallenberg as the Leper was exceptional and must be commended for finding his way around the set in such a bulky but effective costume. Beate Ritter's Angel was suitably capricious but just lacked a little purity in pitch in the celestial moments. Despite what must have been a logistical nightmare at times, this production was vibrant and energised while maintaining the spirituality that was so important to Messiaen and the life of St. François. TURANGALÎLA SYMPHONIE London Symphony Orchestra Sir Simon Rattle, conductor, Peter Donohoe, piano, Cynthia Millar, Ondes Martenot. Barbican Hall, London. 14 June 2023 This concert marked Sir Simon Rattles's last concert as Music Director of the LSO in the Barbican Hall and to mark the occasion he chose to conduct one of his personal favourite pieces: Turangalîla Symphonie, and to be joined by two soloists that he have been associated with him and the work over many years, this promised to be an evening to remember. We were not disappointed. The concert began with Ces belles années... a work by Betsy Jolas who enrolled in Messiaen's class at the Paris Conservatoire and succeeded Messiaen as Professor of Analysis in 1975. Ces belles années... is written for (often exclamatory) soprano - (Faustine de Monès in this performance) and large orchestra, with (like Messiaen) plenty of assorted percussion. Rattle coaxed a myriad of exotic and colourful nuances from said percussion as well as the entire orchestral palette that was clearly appreciated by the near capacity audience including the composer who was in attendance and on her feet at the end not looking anywhere near her 97th year. After an interval and stage reshuffle, Rattle and the LSO launched into the Introduction of Turangalîla with characteristic flare and uninhibited emotion, but this is a work of extremes on all levels and Rattle made the most of the quiet moments and silences such as the flower theme and the sensual love theme that recur throughout the work. Contrast that with the bombastic brassy-ness of the statue theme , the frenetic theme of joy, a keyboard based gamelan and you have a musical romp like no other in the repertoire and the players of the LSO gave their all, in honour of their chief conductor. Since his early days with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Rattle has had an innate sense of tempo for this work unlike some younger conductors who unfortunately let their excitement run riot resulting in a loss of detail and focus. Everything is measured while maintaining a sense of shape and direction making the points of climax and rapture even more intense. Both pianist Peter Donohoe and ondist Cynthia Millar have perhaps notched up more performances than most other soloists that have tackled this work, so together with Rattle and the LSO we really did have the Turangalîla dream team. ©M Ball ©LSO Mark Allan TURANGALÎLA SYMPHONIE Guildhall Symphony Orchestra Nicholas Collon, conductor, William Bracken, piano, Cynthia Millar, Ondes Martenot. Barbican Hall, London. 23rd November 2022 As Edward Bhesania states in his concise but informed programme notes, Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphonie remains ‘one of the great milestones’ of 20th –century orchestral music. However, after the first performance in 1949 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein and a few follow up performances in America and Europe, it’s taken a good half a century for the work to become a staple repertoire piece, not least of course by the rarity of Ondes Martenot players globally. Over the past 20 years, younger orchestras have taken up the challenge, some to great acclaim including the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Junge Deutsche Philharmonic and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and now, among those at the top must surely be the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra. Their performance on the 23rd November under the assured guidance of Nicholas Collon really ‘raised the roof ‘ of the Barbican Hall. There was no cutting back on Messiaen’s stipulated resources, full strings including 10 double basses and full percussion line up that certainly didn’t hold back in the climaxes. That said, Collon also coaxed the more delicate timbres to great effect for example the ‘flower theme’ in the woodwind and the caressing ‘love theme’ in the 6th movement, ‘Jardin du sommeil d’amour’. This movement also produced some fine thoughtful piano work from postgraduate student William Bracken who thoroughly immersed himself in the part and playing from memory created a sense of drama and occasion throughout. Cynthia Millar continued to provided an innate sense of balance and clarity to the Ondes Martenot role and judging by her beaming smile during the lengthy applause at the end, clearly enjoys working with the younger generation on a work that has been so close to her heart for many years. I would have preferred to see the vibraphone, celeste and keyed glockenspiel in front of the stage behind the piano thereby creating a tightly knit ‘gamelan’ section that Messiaen was keen on. Of course this orchestra has not had the historical experience of working together as a seasoned unit and there were a couple of rough edges, but my goodness, they certainly conveyed the exciting exuberance and rhythmic commitment that Messiaen would have loved. ©M.Ball The 23rd November was special because those that could make it earlier were treated to a performance of Harawi in Milton Court Concert Hall just across the road from the Barbican Hall by mezzo soprano, Alexandra Achillea Pouta and pianist, Élisabeth Pion , thus giving us the opportunity to experience two thirds of Messiaen’s Tristan trilogy in one night (the remaining third being Cinq Rechants). What an occasion! To say that Harawi is one of Messiaen’s more deeply personal works is an understatement. Essentially it is a work that explores love and death in a somewhat surrealistic world that is influenced by folk music of Peru, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere. At the time of writing Messiaen’s personal life was in much turmoil having to cope with his wife’s debilitating and declining illness while at the same time a developing relationship with Yvonne Loriod that would eventually culminate in their marriage in 1962. This demanding hour long song cycle was treated with the utmost sensitivity from both Alexandra Achillea Pouta and Élisabeth Pion both of whom brought integrity, personality and clear expressive and emotional engagement to the performance. MB © 11/2022 Des Canyons aux Étoiles... Utah Symphony directed by Thierry Fischer. June 2, 2022. OC Tanner Amphitheater, Springdale, Utah, USA. From the moment I got news of this concert I knew I had to go. Utah had been on my bucket list of places to visit with Messiaen connections for a very long time so this was an opportunity not to be missed. I arranged a 'package' that would include flights, hire car (essential) and hotel and I set off on a whistle stop five day tour that culminated in the concert at the OC Tanner Amphitheater, Zion Park, Utah. Prior to the concert I managed to take in all the sites and areas that so inspired Messiaen throughout the writing of Des Canyons aux Étoiles. .. he described them as 'the most marvellous natural phenomenon in the United States'. Of course, Messiaen's beloved birds feature throughout the work and these are species found in the area as well as elsewhere but there are three movements dedicated to these 'natural phenomenon' that are Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon and Zion Park. So with trusty GPS and hire car I found my way to all these sites and walked in the footsteps of Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod who, in 1972 was surely as awe struck as I was on this occasion. It is one thing seeing these places in books and photos but one really has to be there in person to fully appreciate the immensity, the striking shapes and above all, the colours of the rock formations that are truly breathtaking and unique. The concert on June the 2nd was scheduled to begin at 8.30pm and from 7.30 audience members were shuttled up the winding road from Springdale town to the amphitheater at the foot of the canyon and spot on 8.30, Thierry Fischer appeared and gave a short introduction before the strains of a solo horn set the mood for the first movement Le désert . As is becoming more and more customary, the solo horn was positioned towards the rear of the audience to give a sense of distance and remoteness. Horn player Stefan Dohr gave good time and space for the sound to travel and deflect off the walls of the stage both in this movement and his solo sixth movement 'Appel interstellaire ' where, once our ears were accustomed to the acoustic, every dynamic detail was audible. Commissioned in 1971 to celebrate the bicentenary of the Declaration of Independence, Des Canyons aux Étoile ... uses a modest orchestra, just 44 players, due to the confined space available at the world premiere in Alice Tully Hall but Messiaen's masterful orchestration draws out the raw power of the subject material with vivid immediacy. The score demands a very high standard of virtuosity from all players and the Utah Symphony under Thierry Fischer certainly delivered on all counts. The work also includes important solo parts for horn (mentioned above), xylorimba (Keith Garrick), glockenspiel (Eric Hopkins) and piano (Jason Hardink) all of their parts consisting almost entirely of bird songs. Both Keith Garrick and Eric Hopkins were superb in their roles and Jason Hardink really took this work under his wing (no pun intended!) and made it his own. Without the hinderance of a score, Hardink conjured the avian choruses admirably in the two solo piano movements (IV-Le Cossyphe D'Heuglin and IX-Le Moqueur polyglotte ) and as the ensuing darkness fell on the canyon rocks behind the amphitheater, his sense of naturalism was almost spiritual. Outdoor musical events are always tricky to mic up and balance successfully but the sound team at OC Tanner did a great job with subtle amplification of all sections of the orchestra except the percussion which, from where I was sitting just got slightly lost at times. Nonetheless, having the backdrop of the canyon that Messiaen so loved and experiencing the Utah sky turn slowly from dusk to black, it really was unforgettably - From the Canyons to the Stars... Cedar Breaks Bryce Canyon 13 February 2020. Igor Levit and Markus Hinterhäuser, pianos perform Visions de l'Amen. Milton Court Hall, Barbican, London This was the second in Igor Levit’s series of concerts as the Barbican featured artist and was the first of two concerts that included works for two pianos. Levit’s partner for Vision de l’Amen was Markus Hinterhäuser. Visions de l’Amen was written in 1943 and first performed in Paris during the Occupation by Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod at the Concert de la Pléiade on May 10 that year. Messiaen made no attempt to divide the material between the two pianos and piano one was consciously written for the pianistic talents of Loriod who, even at a young age was able to juggle musical complexities with ease. So her part was assigned the bells, birdsong, rhythmic canons in several layers and so on and piano two (Messiaen’s role) was to supply the thematic material and emotional power. For almost two decades the work remained the sole domain of composer and pupil until Irén Marik and John Ranck made a recording c.1956 and performed it at the Deepest Valley Theatre, USA in 1965 then the Labèque’s took it on in 1969 under Messiaen's supervision. Lately of course many couples have ventured into Messiaen’s world of creation, spinning planets, the agony of Jesus and Jugement, desire and consummation, some with variable results it has to be said. Levit and Hinterhäuser began Amen de la Création with suitable solemn majesty and unlike many recent performances by others, tempo was effective and delivered a sense of Time and Eternity. Levit’s double rhythmic pedal carillon pieced the darkness with just enough light and gave us a hint of things to come. The minim rest had just expired from movement one when Hinterhäuser segued into No.2 Amen des étoiles, de la planète à l’anneau – a brutal dance of the planets in octaves that is eventually joined by the swirling rhythmic and polymodal complexities of piano one. Apart from some over pedaling in piano two, tutti was impressive and the relentless energy and exhilaration heightened the drama. The third Vision, Amen de l’agonie de Jésus focuses on the suffocating confines of the Garden of Gethsemene and Messiaen said of this movement: “God, who’s beyond time…came in order to suffer with us. And I express this in my music…God is above us and still He comes to suffer with us.” This was written at a time when Messiaen’s brother Alain was still in a German prisoner of War camp and his first wife Claire was suffering a debilitating and degenerative mental illness. The music ‘cries’ and shreds the emotions to an almost unbearable degree and the interlocking writing was nuanced and well projected by both performers. Amen du Désir explores two themes of desire. The first slow, ecstatic and longing of a deep tenderness, the second passionate and explosive. Piano two states the opening love song while a sense of clock time is introduced by piano one quietly chiming octave ‘Ds’ where Levit, with legs astride and making eye contact with members of the audience was somewhat distracting. I found Hinterhäuser’s tone a little harsh at times and Messiaen’s detailed dynamics within the chords failed to convince but Levit’s crystalline accompaniment in the development was sensual and played with ardent warmth. As the movement progressed the playing became a little sullied towards the climaxes spoiling the impression at times. Amen des anges, des saints, du chant des oiseaux transports the listener to the angelic sphere beginning with the angels and saints where the music is pure and sparse and phrasing by both pianists was effective and well shaped. Messiaen’s birdsong was still undeveloped in 1943 but he had a clear idea of the birds that would feature here, albeit in a stylized manner. Levit’s birds were not flawless but a sense of joyous freedom pervaded. Amen du jugement is horrific in character with more bells, this time the ‘bell of evidence’. Both performers created a sense of terror and awe and together with Amen de l’agonie de Jésus these were the most successful of the movements in terms of spiritual energy between the two players. Again, a quick segue launched us into Amen de la Consommation where the opening tempo was as fast as the closing tempo should have been. There are three clearly defined tempo increments in the movement that are designed to drive the music forward adding ecstatic joy and excitement that brings the work to it’s exuberant conclusion. Instead Levit and Hinterhäuser bulldozed their way through with scant regard for dynamic detail and less for the important articulation in piano one at the ‘Un peu plus vif’. Visions de l’Amen is a work that requires two souls who are on an equal spiritual plane and have reached that level of intuition that the playing becomes ‘one’. I did not get that impression from this performance that seemed rather workman-like and over reliant on the score. Levit’s Beethoven is masterful but Levit’s visions were not Messiaen’s Visions. BBC PROM - 13 28th July 2019 Des canyons aux étoiles… Nicolas Hodges (piano) Martin Owen (horn) David Hockings (xylorimba) Alex Neal (glockenspiel) BBC Symphony Orchestra Stephen Bryant (leader) Sakari Oramo, conductor It was with much excitement that I awaited the opening bars of Messiaen’s vision of ‘the resurrected in Paradise’ and ‘the beauties of the earth (its rocks, its birdsong) and the beauties of the physical sky and of the spiritual sky’ as Des canyons aux étoiles… is perhaps the most under-performed of all Messiaen’s orchestral pieces. Written for the bicentennial of US independence, it is the longest of Messiaen’s orchestral work (outdoing Turangalîla Symphonie by two movements and about 20 minutes) but using far less forces than the Symphonie – for example, one double bass as opposed to ten and stripped down woodwind and brass. It does, however retain a major part for piano but no Ondes Martenot, instead solo parts for horn, xylorimba and glockenspiel. I was not disappointed. The performance remained gripping throughout its 12 movements presenting a vast array of musical colours that conjured the vast desert and rocky imagery of the Utah landscape, and its unique ornithological aviary. From the outset of movement one (Le désert), the solitude of the horn solo, scampering scorpions and isolated birdsong immediately drew the listener into Messiaen’s sound world and the almost tinnitus inducing bowed crotales, piccolo and violin harmonics created the deafening silence of the desert. Colour has always been at the heart of Messiaen’s orchestral writing and the BBCSO delivered a vivid palette of hues throughout guided by the baton-less Sakari Oramo who just needed to take a little more time in the slow eighth movement (Les ressuscités et le chant de l’étoile Aldébaran) and the final carillon features in movement twelve (Zion Park et la Cité Céleste) to allow the music to breathe and the detailed textures to fully flourish. Horn soloist Martin Owen took full advantage of the Royal Albert Hall acoustic in Appel interstellaire with well judged pauses and animated communication with the audience. The score is peppered with new and experimental (for Messiaen) sounds including the eoliphone (wind machine), geophone (sand machine), cross bridge bowing in the strings and in movement five (Cedar Breaks et le Don de Crainte) a trumpet blowing into the mouthpiece only, creating strange glissandi that straddles the borders of mystery and the comic. Also, Messiaen’s musical alphabet (first used in his Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte-Trinité) appears several times to spell out the biblical quotations that link the spiritual and physical elements in the work. The two solo piano movements (Le Cossyphe d’Heuglin – The white-browed robin and Le Moqueur polyglotte – The Mockingbird), were played with unshaken security and clear sense of musical architecture by Nicholas Hodges and the ‘bird’ interplay between piano and glockenspiel (played by Alex Neal) was simply enthralling in Les ressuscités et le chant de l’étoile Aldébaran. David Hockings (xylorimba) is well known for his virtuosity and this was demonstrated laudably in movement eleven (Omao, Leiothrix, Elepaio, Shama) as well as some enthralling duet work with glockenspiel. For those audience members who felt they couldn’t quite stay the course, a great opportunity was missed to experience Messiaen’s vision as a whole in this rare and beguiling performance. ©M.Ball © M.Ball Further review: Prom 13 More reviews of Harawi kindly submitted by Nicholas Armfelt Review of the the first British performance of Harawi. Interestingly given by Roy Bywood 'tenor' and John Boorman, piano. February 9th 1953 Pierre-Laurent Aimard performed Catalogue d'Oiseaux (complete) at Aldeburgh Festival UK 19 June 2016 When news broke several months ago that Pierre-Laurent Aimard would perform Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux at the Aldeburgh Festival in its entirety, not in Messiaen’s written order and in one day from dawn to dusk and beyond, many seasoned concertgoers and Messiaen devotees thought the idea was bonkers and it would never work. How wrong they would be with the whole day sold out and over subscribed soon after booking opened. Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Roger Muraro and Michel Beroff are three pianists most closely associated with Messiaen’s piano music and all were pupils of Yvonne Loriod and the couple often referred to them as their (musical) children. So having Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival) in the driving seat for this special event meant that there was no doubt whatsoever that it would not work. Aimard chose to place the pieces of the Catalogue by the time of day associated with the bird songs, so the concerts were presented thus: 4.30am Dawn – 1.00pm – Afternoon – 7.30pm – Dusk and 11.00pm – Night. 4.30am 'Dawn' Concert Hall Cafe. ©Sam Murray-Sutton I have to say that after performing in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis the previous evening, it was somewhat of a struggled to get myself up and arrive in Snape for the first concert at 4.30am. (Hardy twitchers were at the reed beds at 3.30 and before the sun rose). However, any sense of fatigue soon dissolved as we the audience took our seats in the Snape Maltings Concert Hall Cafe facing the window and looking out on the reed beds as the sun rose to the strains of Messiaen’s Traquet Stapazin (Black-eared Wheatear), La Bouscarle (Cetti’s Warbler) and Traquet Rieur (Black Wheatear) all mingling with the Suffolk dawn chorus. At 1.00pm in the Britten Studio the ‘Afternoon’ concert revealed Le Buse Variable (Buzzard), L’alouette Calandrelle (Short-toed Lark), Le Loriot (Golden Oriole) and Le Merle Bleu (Blue Rock Thrush). The 7.30pm ‘Dusk’ concert was presented at RSPB Minsmere Nature Reserve outside on Whin Hill with Les Chocards des Alpes (Alpine Chough), Le Merle de Roche (Rock Thrush) and Le Courlis Cendre (Curlew). Finally back at the Britten Studio, ‘Night’ concluded with La Chouette Hulotte (Tawny Owl), L’Alouette Lulu (Woodlark) and La Rousserolle Effarvate (Reed Warbler). What was most striking throughout the day was Aimard’s complete sense of focus (not to mention stamina) in the three locations and how each acoustic space could respond to Messiaen’s aural ‘paintings’. These works are not merely transcribed songs of the titled bird but rather their entire natural habitat and the relationship with other birds within that habitat are all represented, so natural phenomena such as tranquil lakes and rushes, rugged mountain terrain, crashing waves of the sea, howling wind etc. all form part of the canvas. To present the Catalogue over a 19 hour period is impressive enough but to perform with such nuanced playing, emotional power and unshaken security was just astounding. Le Merle Bleu (Blue Rock Thrush) was simply breath-taking and left me speechless with its glittering and fluid passage work and sense of drama whereas La Chouette Hulotte (Tawny Owl) truly sent shivers up the spine with its depiction of ‘darkness, fear and beating heart’ with a call that at times sounds like (in Messiaen’s words) ‘a child being murdered’. A long way from the peaceful setting of La Bouscarle (Cetti’s Warbler) heard both by Aimard’s poised and piquant playing and ‘live’ by the bird itself in the reed beds at Snape. Presenting the 7.30pm ‘Dusk’ concert at RSPB Minsmere Nature Reserve outside on Whin Hill was a risky masterstroke given the unpredictability of the English summer but one that paid off. Yes there was a vexing wind that kept Aimard’s page-turner on her toes but the effect and musical impression was magical. Special mention must go to the BBC. Musical events in the open air are notoriously difficult to control in both volume and sound quality, but the BBC team got it just right. Having Tom McKinney announce throughout the day was also fitting as he has, (according to the booklet notes) been bird watching all of his life. The Festival book was lavish but just a shame that Messiaen’s descriptions were not printed in full for each piece. In between the concerts, other events took place in and around Snape including Nigel Paterson’s film: Dawn Chorus: The Sounds of Spring, a Festival church service, a concert by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge at Blythburgh Church, an RSPB Walk and an illuminating talk by Christopher Dingle (Messiaen specialist and musicologist) and Nigel Collar (ornithologist). 1.00pm 'Afternoon' Britten Studio ©Matt Jolly For many years Yvonne Loriod’s account of this work had remained definitive, but Pierre-Laurent Aimard took it to a higher plane setting a tough benchmark for pianists such as those attending his master-classes during the previous week. It was Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s final year as artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival and thanks must be given for the diversity of art and music that he brought to Suffolk over eight years but perhaps none more so than that of the 19th June 2016 where the entire landscape and natural beauty of Suffolk played a significant part in Messiaen’s and Aimard’s vision. ©M.Ball 7.30pm 'Dusk' RSPB Minsmere © Matt Jolly 11.00pm 'Night' Britten Studio, Snape. © Matt Jolly Pierre-Laurent Aimard Review of the all-Messiaen concert. St. Mary's Church Penzance, Cornwall. UK 4th June 2016. Featuring Malcolm Ball (ondes Martenot) and Peter Humphrey (piano), with Nigel Wicken (organ). 1. 5 Leçons de Solfege (1934) Nos.l,2,3,5,4. Ondes & piano. 2. O sacrum convivium (1937) soprano (Laura Nicholas) &Nigel Wicken (organ) 3. Two piano pieces played by Peter Humphrey: La colombe (1929) and Rondeau (1943). 4. Le merle noir (1952) flute & piano - (Pippa Drummond, flute; Paul Comeau piano). 5. Feuillets inedit s (unpublished pages) ondes & piano. 6. L'alouette lulu (1957) piano- (Peter Humphrey) 7. Vocalise (1935) Ondes & piano 8. Premiere communion de la Vierge (1944) piano. 9. Oraison des belles eaux (1937) Ondes & piano. 10. Joie et clarte des corps glorieux (1939), Nigel Wicken (organ) *** This all-Messiaen concert was a unique musical event, and it was applauded with great enthusiasm by an audience of over 70 people. A glance at the items in the programme with their dates shows that these are works from the earlier half of the composer's career, the latest in date being L'alouette lulu composed in 1957 when Messiaen was aged 49. The concert included authorized arrangements for ondes Martenot and piano along with some other fine works that have hitherto seldom been performed. None of the pieces is particularly obscure or difficult for the listener. Indeed the intention was for this to be a concert of attractive and accessible music, much of it extraordinarily beautiful - music that deserves to be heard more often. Many people will know of Messiaen's use of the Ondes Martenot in three of his greatest works: Trois petites liturgies de la Presence divine, Turangalila, and Saint François d'Assise. The pieces in this concert, however, were adaptations of the high melodic line of some smaller works, pieces originally written with pedagogical intent - sight-reading exercises or examination tests. In their modest way they often exemplify Messiaen's characteristic melodies, harmonies and rhythms. What is remarkable is their quality, and also their delightful deftness and charm. The 5 Leçons de Solfege (1934) for ondes and piano formed an ideal start to the concert. These sight-reading pieces, originally for soprano but readily adaptable for flute or for ondes, are easy on the ear, some sprightly, others with a mildly melancholy and wistful charm. We were not challenged with any of the loud swoopings and whoopings characteristic of the Ondes in parts of the large orchestral works. This evening we experienced the quieter and ethereal qualities. O sacrum convivium (1937), beautifully sung by the soprano Laura Nicholas accompanied by Nigel Wicken on the organ. This version is rarely performed, though the a capella version is often sung by cathedral choirs. This was a spellbinding and very moving performance. The four piano solos, admirably played by Peter Humphrey, were all remarkably different from one another. La colombe (1929) was delicately evocative; Rondeau (1943) came across as exciting and dazzling with a delightful lightness of touch; La premiere communion de la Vierge (1944) communicated a beautiful and deeply spiritual experience. L'alouette lulu (1957) was wonderful: velvet-dark chords representing night, magical high descending trills of the woodlark, the more percussive brilliance of the nightingale. Le merle noir (1952) for flute (Pippa Drummond) and piano (Paul Comeau) was sensational in its virtuosity and brilliance. The audience was bowled over by it. Of the pieces for ondes and piano, which constituted the bulk of the concert, it was the Oraison des belles eaux that built up to the most sustained intensity. Malcolm Ball and Peter Humphrey achieved an extraordinarily subtle, well-graduated, and compelling melodic and chordal progression. The emotion was overwhelming. The concert concluded with Joie et clarte des corps glorieux (1939) played on the organ by Nigel Wicken using the exact stops and registrations that are indicated in the score. The "joy and radiance" resounded in the church, an exhilarating and fitting culmination. Nicholas Armfelt (June 2016) Turangalîla Symphonie Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. Gustavo Dudamel conductor, Yuja Wang, piano, Cynthia Millar, Ondes Martenot Royal Festival Hall London. 16th January 2016 Some might say there was something more dazzling than the Lumiere Light Festival showing over London on the 16th of January and that was the appearance of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela under Gustavo Dudamel at London’s Southbank performing Messiaen’s mighty Turangalîla Symphonie. Messiaen loved to ‘dazzle’ and we were certainly treated to an aural and visual feast from the moment piano soloist Yuja Wang strode onto the Royal Festival Hall stage sporting a sparkling micro mini dress with matching shoes only out shone by her dazzling and scintillating performance of this quasi piano concerto. Ms. Wang is well known for her concerto performances of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Shostakovich etc. but not later 20th century works such as this. She may not have this music completely in her bones as Pierre-Laurant Aimard and indeed she seemed a little over reliant on the score at times, but she played the most demanding passages with unshaken security and a kaleidoscopic dynamic sense. This was particularly evident in movement 6 (Jardin du sommeil d’amour) where Messiaen had just started to develop his birdsong writing. Her delicate touch and ‘improvisatory’ approach allowed Messiaen’s birds to flit effortlessly over a cushion of strings and Ondes Martenot melody. As attractive and, again, dazzling her six inch stiletto heels and three inch platform shoes were, they did impair her pedaling at times where some resonances were abruptly cut short and not fully controlled. This was a minor glitch in an otherwise quite staggering performance. Turangalîla Symphonie is new fair for the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and Dudamel added to their repertoire in 2015. This team with Yuja Wang and Cynthia Millar have performed the work in Barcelona, Luxembourg, London and will play in Cologne on the 24th January. The work is not new to ondist Cynthia Millar, having played it countless times over many years now. Her performance here demonstrated just how well attuned her ear is to tonal and dynamic balance of her instrument with the rest of the orchestra. Dudamel stuck rigidly to Messiaen’s orchestral numbers that are inflated in all departments including 10 double basses. I have heard this piece where reductions were made and it really spoils the effect, balance and colour, but not so on this occasion. He conducted with precision and passion coaxing out the delicate ‘flower motif’ played by woodwinds, contrasting this with the burnished white-hot fortissimo ‘statue theme’ in the brass. He also stuck well to Messiaen’s revised tempi with just movement 5 (Joie du sang des étoiles) taking a few bars to settle. I felt the tam tam was a little cautious in the climaxes and the staggered positioning of the metallic instruments (vibraphone, celeste and keyed glock) did not create the intended gamelan effect that Messiaen wanted. Bruce Hodges’ progamme notes were rather too generalised and contained a few minor inaccuracies. He alluded to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde but failed to place Turangalila within Messiaen’s own Tristan trilogy (Harawi, Turangalîla Symphonie and Cinq Rechants). This said, the ‘force’ was certainly with Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the vitality and energy that the orchestra is famous for was 95% evident. I reserve 100% for the performance given by the National Youth Orchestra of GB under Sir Andrew Davis in a 2001 BBC Prom. © Malcolm Ball BBC Proms Friday 7th August 2015 Royal Albert Hall, London. Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) Orchestration realised by Christopher Dingle (b. 1971) Un oiseau des arbres de Vie (Oiseau tui) (1987/8, orch.2013/14) world premiere. ‘On either side of the river is the tree of life…’ (Revelations 22:2) ‘Bless the Lord, all birds of the air’ (Daniel 3:80) For those of us who felt that Peter Hill’s recent and exciting discovery of the piano piece ‘La fauvette passerinette ’ was the last piece of Messiaen’s manuscripts to see a new light of day since the composers’ death, imagine our thrill to hear of this 4 minute gem that emerged from the work desk in Paris! This said, many scholars and enthusiasts have known about ‘Un oiseau des arbres de Vie (Oiseau tui) ’ as Chris Dingle pointed out in the highly illuminating Proms Extra talk that was shared with Peter Hill. Messiaen planned for a pair of movements in ‘Éclairs sur l’Au-delà… ’ that featured the tui bird from New Zealand and the lyrebird from Australia. The lyrebird remained in the finished work but Messiaen, reluctantly decided to omit the tui from Éclairs. He had, however, written all the music for the movement in a three stave short score and characteristically approved this by marking ‘Bien’ to note its completion. Thanks to Peter Hill who was granted a copy from Messiaen’s widow Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, Chris Dingle set about the daunting task of orchestrating the movement. It would be very hard to find another as well qualified as Chris to undertake such a task with his boundless knowledge of Messiaen’s final works (especially Éclairs) and a thorough understanding of the orchestral palette used by Messiaen. The song of the tui is remarkable for its vast vocal range as well as being a great imitator of, not just other birds, but also many environmental sounds it hears such as percussive knocks and clicks, swooping glissandi and even the human voice. As one who has been fortunate enough to see and hear this bird first hand (on Tiritiri Matangi Island NZ) I can confirm it is one of the most vocally adept of all the avian species. The result is a 4-minute virtuosic tour de force in all the orchestral departments. Messiaen’s beloved trio of marimba, xylorimba and xylophone featured prominently and executed with great aplomb by the percussionists of the BBC Philharmonic. The tui’s song flits around the orchestra of multiple woodwind, brass and strings at great speed and dazzling metrical complexity often culminating (and concluding) by ‘tumbling’ onto three cellos. The wood blocks are featured in an almost concerto-like capacity and there are smacks of ‘Oiseaux exotiques ’ with repeated tutti stabs, but as Chris Dingle pointed out, the music contains clearly recognisable ‘Messiaen’ but at the same time colours and traits new to his birdsong writing. And it is ‘colour’ that really dazzled us in the Royal Albert Hall this evening by craftsman of 20th (and 21st) century composer/orchestrators. Mozart kicked off the first half with the not too often heard Idomeneo – ballet music and although not 20th century, Messiaen considered Mozart a great colourist who’s influence remained with him throughout his life. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet gave a glittering and moving account of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major as well as the breath-taking Etude de concert by Pierné by way of an encore, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements , Colin Matthews’s delicate and translucent orchestration of Oiseaux tristes from the piano suite Miroirs by Ravel and Ravel’s own orchestral masterpiece La Valse concluding the proceedings. The BBC Philharmonic was on top form in all departments driven by the effervescent Nicholas Collon who coaxed out all the subtle nuances in this feast of nature and colour. © M.Ball Peter Hill and Christopher Dingle ©M.Ball Turangalila Symphonie Philharmonia Orchestra. Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Valérie Hartmann-Claverie, Ondes Martenot. Royal Festival Hall London. 28th May 2015 The last time I reviewed the Philharmonia performing Turangalîla Symphonie was back in 2008, Messiaen’s centenary year when they performed the work in sunny Southend-on-Sea, Essex (see below) and the only change in personnel in this performance was ondist Valérie Hartmann-Claverie (Jacques Tchamkerten was in the ondes chair in Southend). This was the final concert in the Philharmonia’s series “City of Light – Paris, 1900–1950” and if you want to go out with a bang then Turangalîla is the ideal choice. But before the mighty Symphonie, we were treated to some sonorous delights of a different kind beginning with Debussy’s Syrinx for solo flute and indeed it could be said that the orchestra ‘grew’ throughout the evening with Simon Coles alone on stage followed by the rarely heard La damoiselle élue for female chorus, mezzo and soprano solo and orchestra, then Turangalîla where the RFH stage was bursting at the seams. From the opening bars of the Introduction it was clear that Messiaen’s ‘baby’ was in safe hands as of course it has been with Salonen for many years now. The orchestral colours so important for Messiaen were clearly defined here and exquisitely balanced throughout. The keyboards (celeste, keyed glock and vibraphone) were positioned correctly at the front of the stage but sadly the mallets used on the vibraphone were too soft to convey the clanging gamelan effect that Messiaen intended. Salonen’s tempi were well judged throughout but for (and this was the case in 2008) the 9th movement where Messiaen revised the tempo from quaver 100 to 80. Salonen produced a rather jaunty jog rather than the mysterious strange and ethereal atmosphere created by ondes, percussion, keyboards and 13 solo strings. If the tempo is too fast the timbral detail and rhythmic personalities are lost or at least thrown into relief. This aside, Salonen and the orchestra produced an epic performance with soloists Valérie Hartmann-Claverie playing entirely from memory with great command and expressive intensity and Pierre-Laurent Aimard setting the whole piece alight with his stunning virtuosity and consistent engagement befitting in this glittering finale to the ‘City of Light’. © MB Messiaenfestival Orgelpark 22 February 2015 Het Orgelpark, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Fête des Belles Eaux for 6 Ondes Martenot’s Fabienne Martin, Pascale Rousse-Lacordaire, Philippe Arrieus, Haruka Ogawa, Dominique Kim, Augustin Viard. Quatuor pour la fin du temps Thomas Dieltjens, piano Benjamin Dieltjens, clarinet Aki Sauliere, violin Raphael Bell, cello This concert was the culmination of a Messiaen festival organised by Johan Luijmes, (artistic director) and his team at the colourful and attractive Orgelpark venue in Amsterdam. Previous concerts in the series featured such luminaries as Ralph van Raat performing Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus , Berry van Berkum performing Les Corps Glorieux and Musici Nederlands Kamerkoor Klaas Stok with Marcel Verheggen performing Apparition de l’Eglise Eternelle, O Sacrum convivium, L’Ascension, Cinq Rechants, Le Banquet céleste . Although I was unable to attend the entire festival I was determined to make the trip to Amsterdam on Sunday the 22nd to see and hear this performance of Fête des Belles Eaux by ‘Vecteur Ondes ’ (Fabienne Martin, Pascale Rousse-Lacordaire, Philippe Arrieus, Haruka Ogawa, Dominique Kim and Augustin Viard). This piece is so rarely heard live that any performance that is only a short plan trip away is most definitely worthwhile. Messiaen was one of 20 composers commissioned to write a piece in 1937 for a festival of sound, water and light (a ‘son et lumière’) that took place along the river Seine in Paris and after seeing and hearing Maurice Martenot’s new electronic invention in 1928 he opted for a piece featuring 6 Ondes Martenot’s. The performance began after dark where fireworks in the sky were mirrored by jets of water combined with the harmonies of the music. Nowadays we settle for the six Ondists seated in a semicircle in the comfort of a concert hall, as was the case on the 22nd. The virtuosic first Ondes part (the role originally played by Ginette Martenot the inventors’ sister and later Jeanne Loriod) was superbly executed by Fabienne Martin who coaxed the most expressive qualities and emotional intensity from the instrument in movements 4 and 6. The musical material for these two movements later found its way into the Quatuor. Pascale Rousse-Lacordaire guided the overall performance clearly and concisely resulting in excellent ensemble and dynamic expression throughout. Those of you familiar with the oak coloured wooden cabinet style that Maurice Martenot produced together with the eye catching lotus leaf shaped ‘palme’ loudspeaker would have been slightly disappointed as all the performers used the Ondea, a modern version of the original that has no such ‘art nouveau’ qualities. This is not a problem, as the sound quality and characteristics of the Ondea is very close to that of the original Martenot instrument and of course much more reliable, but being a little old fashioned, I just like the aesthetic of the original instrument. However, the metallique speakers (a resonating gong) were used to create the highly effective shimmering in the 6th movement. Also, it wasn’t until 2003 that the new score of Fête des Belles Eaux was published and the timbre registrations were written for the series 7 Ondes Martenot that only includes 3 speakers: Principle, Reverberation and Metallique (D1,D2 and D3). This was a memorable performance of the highest quality that clearly demonstrated the organic, human expressive quality of these instruments that have stood the test of time and sets it aside from modern day synthesizers. The second half of the concert was given over to a scintillating performance of Quatuor pour la fin du temps perhaps Messiaen’s most performed work. If this is the case, then it is still extraordinary how every performance brings something different to the work. Benjamin Dieltjens, Aki Sauliere, Raphael Bell performed their respective ‘solo’s’ with rapt intensity all underpinned by Thomas Dieltjens’ secure, no nonsense pianism that totally captivated the audience throughout. A true Amsterdam standing ovation for both performances was thoroughly deserved. As an extra ‘treat’ there was a running video of an interview with Messiaen and Dutch maestro Reinbert de Leew centred on a performance of La Transfiguration de notre-Seigneur Jésus Christ – what more could we ask for? All thanks to Johan Luijmes and Karlijne Swart for their tireless efforts and hospitality. ©M.Ball