Olivier Messiaen: Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine (Forlane)
Purchased at Jerry's Records
It's Good Friday, not that it means so much to me. I've already had on some Messiaen, so why not keep it going?
How Messiaenish: choir with small string orchestra, percussion, piano, Ondes Martenot, violin, and soprano soloists. The recording, from 1983, is a real family affair: the composer surpervising, wife Yvonne Loriod as piano soloist, her sister on Ondes Martenot.
Literally from the first note, you know you're hearing Messiaen. The first ghostly chord sung in the choir couldn't be anyone else. He'd write a number of works over the years that have similarities to this piece. That said, it feels very much like a predecessor to this immensely ambitious Turangalîla-symphonie.
I've wondered in previous posts, do people still play works by a particular composer? Do people play Frank Martin, Jo Kondo, Jonathan Harvey, Neils Viggo Bentzon? I know people still play Messiaen, not only in France but here in America and around the world. But how much does this work get performed? I guess I can't really say, I'm just not aware of any performances at the local level. It seems to me this would be a natural for a conservatory program looking for programming for choir and orchestra. I guess throwing the Ondes Martenot into the mix makes that more challenging. I know a local composer who plays the Martenot though, who'd work really hard on this. So how about it, CMU Philharmonic?
Since I noted the noisiness of the Vingt Regards pressing from earlier today, I suppose it's worth mentioning that this pressing is amazingly clean and clear. I really am not super fussy about such things, but I also appreciate that when it is true.
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