Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jésus

Olivier Messiaen - Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jésus

Performer:

Håkon Austbø - piano

Recorded in St. Martin's Church, East Woodhay, England

from 11th to 13th August, 1993 (CD1) and

from 16th to 18th August, 1993 (CD2)

Tomorrow is Christmas, which is not only the day to open presents and hope that they are what is desired but the day has been declared the birth of the religious figure, Jesus Christ. With that in mind, this album is posted.

Background from liner notes:

The Vingt Regards were written in 1944 and dedicated to the pianist Yvonne Loriod, who became Messiaen's second wife in 1962, after the death of his first wife, the violinist Claire Delbos, three years earlier. She continued as a leading exponent of his music. The work is a meditation on the Infant Christ, conceived in musical language of some complexity. The theme of God, which appears first in the opening bars of Regard du Pere, Contemplation by God the Father, is used again in sections of the work that refer directly to the Deity, the Contemplation of the Son, of the Spirit of Joy, God the Creator, the kiss of the Infant Jesus, the communion of the Virgin and the final Chruch of Love, with a theme of the Star and of the Cross identical in that they open and close the earthly life of Christ, his birth foretold by a Star and His life ended on the Cross. A further theme of chords is used in various ways in a texture that uses a variety of technical devices with the utmost originality. Messiaen claimed here the influence not only of bird-song, directly quoted in a number of sections, but also of bells, spirals, stalactites, galaxies, photons and the writings of Don Columba Marmion, St. Thomas, St. John of the Cross, Saint Therese of Lisieux, the Gospels and the Missal.

Background of Messiaen:

The French composer Olivier Messiaen is among the most influential figures in the music of the present century [the 20th], at first alarming and shocking audiences but later winning an unassailable position, repsected universally for his achievement through a language that is intensely personal, emotional and informed by a deep Catholic piety. Messiaen had his musical training at the Paris Conservatoire, where his teachers included the organist Marcel Dupre, Maurice Emmanuel and Paul Dukas. He was appointed organist at La Trinite in 1931 and continued to play there until his death. A number of important organ compositions were written in this early period of his career. He was taken prisoner in 1940 and in a prison camp in Silesia wrote his Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of the World), returning, on his release in 1943, to the Conservatoire, where he taught harmony, but exercised even greater influence in the following years through his teaching at the Conservatoire, where he held classes in analysis, and various centres abroad. As a composer his attention was now turned to composition for the piano, inspired by his pupil Yvonne Loriod. He became professor of composition at the Conservatoire in 1966 and a member of the Institut in the following year.

Messiaen's musical language, one all his own, is derived from a number of sources. His interest in bird-song is directly evident in his Oiseaux exotiques and Catalogue d'oiseaux, but is also found in the Vingt Regards. Describing himself as a "rythmicien", he had a profound interest in Greek verse rhythms, Hindu rhythms and the rhythms of major Western composers, from Claude Le Jeune to Stravinsky and Debussy. His harmony is derived from a combination of sources, from serialism and atonality, tonality and modal writing, while he takes an equally idiosyncratic approach to orchestral colour and organ registration.

Tracklisting:

CD1

1. I. Regard du Pere {8:09}

2. II. Regard de l'étoile {3:09}

3. III. L'échange {3:24}

4. IV. Regard de la Vierge {5:21}

5. V. Regard de Fils sur de Fils {8:15}

6. VI. Par lui tout a ete fait {10:49}

7. VII. Regard de la Croix {4:21}

8. VIII. Regard des hauteurs {2:22}

9. IX. Regard de temps {2:45}

10. X. Regard de l'Esprit de joie {8:49}

CD2

1. XI. Première communion de la Vierge {7:38}

2. XII. La parole toute-puissante {2:31}

3. XIII. Noël {4:22}

4. XIV. Regard des Agnes {5:08}

5. XV. Le baiser de l'enfant Jésus {14:06}

6. XVI. Regard des prophètes, des bergers et des mages {3:09}

7. XVII. Regard du silence {5:36}

8. XVIII. Regard de l'onction terrible {7:03}

9. XIX. Je dors, mais mon coeur veille {11:00}

10. XX. Regard de l'Eglise d'amour {14:35}

(1) (2)

I would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas.