Des Canyons aux étoiles

by

Olivier Messiaen

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Valuable compilation, with Messiaen's late(well, later) masterpiece, the longest piece for piano and orchestra in the orchestral repertoire the main work, and the shorter, but no less excellent OISEAUX EXOTIQUES and COULEURS DE LA CITE CELESTE. CANYONS is one of the composers most unusual scores (and that's saying a lot!) with its part for wind machine, its piano part of rushes of birdsong, and the weird effects on the cellos in movement no.5 jst some of the highlights. OISEAUX is one of Messiaen's most succesful 'birdsong pieces', in which he invented an almost entirely new musical language, alternating blocks of transcribed birdsong. COULEURS is all glittering colours, with the virtuosic tinklings of piano, xylophones and percussion contrasted or should that be complemented with rich brass chords and the sound of 3 clarinets.

The performance comes out as just a little too clinical and polished, bringing out the percussive twang to the music better than the richly contemplative moments, but it is still very good.

PS-This excellent release has recently been re-issued as part of Sony's Essential Classics series at a bargain price. The presentation is completely adequarte, with Paul Crossley's marvellous notes, and at £9.99 for 2 CDs, it's a must buy.

I'm a recent convert to classical music, and when a glowing article about for Olivier Messiaen appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, I decided to give it a whirl. I feel I'm out the money I paid. The notes seem randomly thrown together, and the "exotic birds" sound like no kind of bird I've heard. The clamor of notes is disconcerting and unharmonious, and the audio effects (some kind of wind machine used to simulate canyon breezes comes to mind) seem contrived and only more distracting. Nor am I alone in this position: my girlfriend Sarah, a classical flutist and pianist, agrees that the "music" is unmusical and the supposed birds aren't there to be heard. Perhaps she and I just don't get it. And perhaps it's just not there to be gotten.