Four Messiaen compositions in live broadcast versions, giving some idea of the orchestral range of his soundworld...

Olivier Messiaen

Allright then. Some Messiaen is just modern day soul food, I feel; so here's a quadriplex of broadcast performances that give the range, to me at least, of what I love about Monsieur Messiaen's ouevre. There's always that calm at the heart of the pieces, a la Arvo Part, yet they are shot through with the coruscating faith-haunted digressions of later Pendereski. So, with some words by the original uploaders, we advance:



Olivier Messiaen:

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OZAWA Folder:

Trois petites Liturgies de la prÈsence divine

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Seiji Ozawa, conductor
with
Peter Serkin: piano
Takashi Harada: Ondes Martenot
Tanglewood Festival Women's Chorus
live at Symphony Hall.
Boston, Massachusetts USA
November 29, 2008

FM radio broadcast

Our uploading host, Zootype excerpted from the BSO program notes, that "Former Boston Symphony Orchestra Artistic Director Seiji Ozawa conducts the BSO for the first time in about six years...

During the Second World War, after he was released from a prison camp in Silesia, Messiaenís next major orchestral work was the "Three Short Liturgies of the Divine Presence". Messiaen wrote the text for Liturgies himself at the same time as the music and declared that it had no literary pretensions, despite the obvious influence of writers such as Paul …luard and Pierre Reverdy. He wanted to express theological truths about God and composed three movements each dedicated to an aspect of the presence - God present in us, present in himself, and present in all things. Messiaen was clear that these inexpressible ideas were not directly expressed in the music but that they remain "on the level of a dazzlement of colors."

01 I Antienne de la conversation intÈrieure 10:20
Anthem of the Interior (God present in us...)

02 II Sequence du verbe, cantique divin 7:02
Sequence of the Word, divine hymn (God present in himself...)

03 III Psalmodie de l'ubiquitÈ par amour 15:45
Psalmody of ubiquity through love (God present in all things...)

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BENJAMIN Folder:

Oiseaux exotiques

Benjamin, George; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Pierre Laurent Aimard, piano

PARIS, France
Salle Pleyel
05 dec 2008
Festival d'Automne

Amidst a conversation about Messiaen, Gerald Levinson recalls an experience with Mr. Aimard, by the way: "...And so the concert ended at 1:15 a.m. with Pierre-Laurent playing. The technicians got mad and dimmed the lights about 1:00 o’clock in the middle of the [Cinq] Danses rituelles. And Pierre-Laurent didn’t miss a beat. Now he’s a great master. Everybody knows Pierre-Laurent Aimard now. He was seventeen then, and an amazing prodigy. I asked him afterwards, ‘How did you keep playing when all those lights went out?’ And he said, ‘The lights went out?’ That to me was a real lesson about what a real master performer does..."

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GATTI Folder:

Un Sourire
Gatti, Daniele; Orchestre National de France

Theatre des Champs-Elysees
18 sept 2008

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CHUNG Folder:

Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Myung-Whun Chung - conductor
Olivier Latry - organ

Royal Albert Hall, London (UK)
21 july 2008
BBC3 rec.

These last 3 Thanks to fadoze, who I am hoping will not come o'er and poke me right in the eye for transmogrifying these treasures to the dreaded MP3 format! It does get to more folks easier as such.