Messiaen: Livre d'Orgue, Méditations, etc / Bate
Editorial Reviews Jennifer enjoys the unique reputation as a world authority on the French composer, Olivier Messiaen, and was his organist of choice. In 1975, upon hearing Jennifer Bate perform a program of his works, Olivier Messiaen wrote the following recommendation about Jennifer Bate. "...is an excellent organist, not only for her virtuosity, but also for her musicianship and sensitivity in choosing her timbres. She is a really accomplished musician who loves what she plays and knows how to make others love it too!" This marked the beginning of a close artistic association and friendship between the two.
Album Description
Jennifer Bate at the Organ of St. Pierre de Beauvais Cathedral
Messe de la Pentecôte
Livre d'Orgue
Neuf Mèditations sur le Mystére de la Sainte Trinit
Messiaen: Livre d'Orgue, Méditations, etc / Bate, Music, Olivier Messiaen
Average customer rating: 
|
Messiaen: Livre d'Orgue, Méditations, etc / Bate
Manufacturer: Regis Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  Classical
| Indie Music
| Stores
| Music
General
| Classical
| Styles
| Music
ASIN: B0000AOGNJ Release Date: 2003-07-09 |
Album Description
Jennifer Bate at the Organ of St. Pierre de Beauvais CathedralJennifer enjoys the unique reputation as a world authority on the French composer, Olivier Messiaen, and was his organist of choice.
In 1975, upon hearing Jennifer Bate perform a program of his works, Olivier Messiaen wrote the following recommendation about Jennifer Bate. "...is an excellent organist, not only for her virtuosity, but also for her musicianship and sensitivity in choosing her timbres. She is a really accomplished musician who loves what she plays and knows how to make others love it too!" This marked the beginning of a close artistic association and friendship between the two.
Customer Reviews:
Impressive readings of three major Messiaen organ works.......2004-01-14
The Messe de la Pentecote was written in 1950, and is one of Messiaen's most radical works. It lasts approximately half an hour, and is based on the form of the organ masses of Messiaen's countryman Charles Tournemire. However, where Tournemire's music is based on plainsong, Messiaen's is--typically for the composer--based on Hindu rhythms and birdsong. As with Tournemire, the first movement is an Introit: here involving exchanges of unconventional harmony and articulation. The second movement Offertory takes up nearly half the work: it is a lengthy structure that alternates large blocks of contrasting material. The Consecration alternates complex structures based on Hindu rhythms with interruptions from monodic recitatives. It is followed by a Communion that takes the form of a collage of birdsong and ecstatic hymnic melodies, before the closing Post-Communion, a raging octave toccata whose energy only breaks off during interpolations of birdsong.
The Livre d'Orgue was written in the following year, and takes the experimentalism of the Messe de la Pentecote even further. It lasts about forty-five minutes, and is in seven movements, all of which are through-composed in a highly constructivist manner except for the central birdsong collage. The opening movement is monodic and based on Hindu rhythms, with a near-pointillist melodic line that contains many wide leaps. The second movement is a brief, subdued trio whose rhythmic complexity comes from the use of different Hindu rhythms in each part; the fortissimo opening dissonances of the third movement come as a shocking contrast to it. This movement, an evocation of the mountains of the Dauphine, alternates those fortissimo dissonances with more placid material. The fourth movement is a multifarious collage of bird songs, and its complexity is continued in the fifth movement trio, where a melody in the pedals is set against complex rhythmic counterpoint (once again, derived from Hindu rhythms) in the manuals. A brief, fierce toccata leads into the finale, which is a tour de force of rhythmic complexity. A largely slow retrograde canon--with no note duration ever repeated--provides a gradually-moving landscape against the composer has overlaid a series of birdsong fragments.
Messiaen did not complete another major organ work until nearly 20 years later, but when he did, the result was on a scale that dwarfed the preceding work: the nine Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité last almost eighty minutes. This epic work retreats somewhat from the metrical complexities of the early-1950s works, but adds a new constructivist element which the composer called 'communicable language': an algorithm for generating melodies from written text, which is used for recitative-like elements in the music. Added to this musical mix are Messiaen's usual use of birdsong, modal melodies and Hindu rhythms, as well as multiple references to plainsong. The first meditation alternates variations of a modal theme with communicable language, then builds through a series of ostinati to a powerful climax. The second consists of two panels that juxtapose communicable language, plainsong and birdsong before the movement closes with a pianissimo epilogue. The brief third meditation pits communicable language in the right hand against an accompaniment derived from Hindu rhythms; the atmospheric fourth combines colouristic chords and birdsong before building to a brief, incantatory climax. The stunning fifth piece pulls together much of the musical ideas heard thus far and collapses them in a ferociously dramatic sequence that ends in an unexpected slow epilogue. In the sixth meditation three plainsong themes are progressively elaborated, interspersed with more passages of communicable language. The seventh meditation is comparatively subdued and alternates communicable language and birdsong, closing in a radiant E major. The eighth meditation builds complexity from simple, unadorned plainsong; this process is repeated in two varied reprises, and the work closes with a dramatic finale that ties together the main themes of the work with a collage of birdsong.
These are fine works, and Gillian Weir's performances are impressive (the composer gave his approval to them). While the Messe de la Pentecote and Livre d'Orgue are not amongst Messiaen's most accessible works, all three of the pieces here are strong--if I were pressed to name a favourite Messiaen organ work it would be the Messe; the other two works here have some comparatively less inspired moments but the Messe is consistently outstanding throughout. Overall, this is an excellent package, enhanced by clear and informative inlay notes (those for the Méditations are by the composer himself).
Music Review:
Recommended Music:
Debussy: Complete Chamber Music with Piano
Music: The Archives Volume I [Explicit Lyrics]
Forever Faithless: The Greatest Hits [Enhanced] [Import]
Fun House [Original recording remastered]
Everyday Is a Winding Road [CD-single]
Deception [CD-single] [Import]