Olivier Messiaen: Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum; Chronochromie; La Ville d'en haut

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Pierre Boulez's performances of Olivier Messiaen's scores, especially the tough ones, are legendary, and "Chronochromie" is the composer's most complex and abstract work. Rising to the challenge, Boulez directs what is clearly its finest recording--not that there's been all that much competition! Of course, he has the great advantage of the Cleveland Orchestra--easily the world's finest ensemble in the field of contemporary music, and a DG recording of extreme clarity. The two couplings are less difficult, but let's not kid ourselves, this isn't a record for the casual listener looking for a pretty tune. It's great music, but it demands commitment. --David Hurwitz

Olivier Messiaen: Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum; Chronochromie; La Ville d'en haut, Music, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Cleveland Orchestra, 20th/21st Century Orchestral Work with Descriptive Title, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Orchestral

Average customer rating:

Great performances in superlative sound

Promises of Spring, of Eternity, of Renaissance

Messiaen's vision, via Boulez and Cleveland

Disappointment to Delight

a Balanced and Finely Tuned Performance.

Olivier Messiaen: Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum; Chronochromie; La Ville d'en haut

Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by Messiaen | Messiaen, Olivier | ( M ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Symphonies | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
Cleveland Orchestra | ( C ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
Deutsche Grammophon: Music | Specialty Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Des Canyons Aux Etoiles

Olivier Messiaen: Éclairs sur l'au-delà (Illuminations of the Beyond)

Messiaen: La transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ

Olivier Messiaen: TurangalÃ®la Symphonie

Olivier Messiaen: Complete Organ Works

ASIN: B000001GOV
Release Date: 1995-10-17

Tracks:

Chronochromie: Introduction
Chronochromie: Strophe I
Chronochromie: Antistrophe I
Strophe II
Antistrophe II
Epode
Coda
La Ville d'en haut
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum: I.
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum: II.
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum: III.
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum: IV.
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum: V.

Amazon.com essential recording

Pierre Boulez's performances of Olivier Messiaen's scores, especially the tough ones, are legendary, and "Chronochromie" is the composer's most complex and abstract work. Rising to the challenge, Boulez directs what is clearly its finest recording--not that there's been all that much competition! Of course, he has the great advantage of the Cleveland Orchestra--easily the world's finest ensemble in the field of contemporary music, and a DG recording of extreme clarity. The two couplings are less difficult, but let's not kid ourselves, this isn't a record for the casual listener looking for a pretty tune. It's great music, but it demands commitment. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

Great performances in superlative sound.......2005-08-23

This is a stunning disc - for the performances, for the recorded sound and, of course, for the works themselves.

Chronochromie and Et expecto have both been recorded before - in both cases not long after their premieres. Both are works of Messiaen's Middle Period when the force and impact of Nature as a reflection of the composer's religious beliefs was right in the foreground of his writing (cf. Des canyons aux etoiles, Couleurs de la cite celeste or the Books of the Catalogue d'Oiseaux for other examples). Here you will find Messiaen's passion for birdsong given full rein along with his intensely vivid impressionist musical landscapes. The central movement of Chronochromie where a multitude of solo strings pile up all the different birdsongs of a dawn chorus is magical in this performance - the perfect mix of clarity and chaos. This is staggering writing that, inevitably, foreshadows the passage in St. Francois when the saint preaches to the birds.

Chronochromie is the strongest piece on this disc, tightly organised along the lines of classical Greek poetic drama with carefully balanced movements (Strophe set against Antistrophe as in a Greek Chorus) and filled with bold gestures, wonderful melodies and the richest of multihued harmonies (Messiaen always tends to see his harmonies in synesthesic terms). The work has tended to live in the shadow of more obviously dramatic pieces like Canyons and Et expecto. The latter as recorded here will have you jumping at the sudden screeches of the birds. The games with additive rhythms on a range of gongs and tam-tams are certainly exciting. Here, too, are the monumental chorales so typical of Messiaen. But it seems to me that Et expecto lacks some of the cohesion that holds Chronochromie together as a whole work, rather than as a series of pictures.

The performances of both works, as well as of La Ville en haut (another vision of the Celestial City) are masterly from the composer's pupil. The clarity of texture, the precision of ensemble and the rhythmical accuracy Boulez secures from his Cleveland forces are all thrilling. The dynamic range will test your equipment and the tolerance of your neighbours, especially in these recordings which present the sounds of the mostly wind and percussion forces with remarkable accuracy and with great depth as well as spread to the stereo image.

Promises of Spring, of Eternity, of Renaissance.......2004-01-15

While the winter may be a time for introspection and solitude, winter is also a time for anticipating Spring and the rebirth of all that is treasured in living things. Olivier Messiaen was probably more attuned to the sounds of nature than even Gustav Mahler and the two composers shared this love of the freedom and transparency of the fields and skies alive with the songs of birds and distant tunes. Mahler infused these thoughts into his symphonic works as relief from his ever present angst. Messiaen on the other hand spent his life composing works that incorporated the bliss of nature and found the promise of afterlife and renaissance in these sweet fantasies.

In this wondrous CD the immaculate Pierre Boulez finds just the right sense of clarity and control in conducting the Cleveland Orchestra in three of Messiaen's masterworks: CHRONOCHROMIE, LA VILLE D'EN HAUT, and ET EXSPECTO RESURRECTIONEM MORTUORUM. This is music for meditation and release. The sheer beauty of Messiaen's music is captured as beautifully as any other recording, and the shimmering glow of the recording never pushes the dynamic or ignores the whispers. A fine CD for awaiting spring.

Messiaen's vision, via Boulez and Cleveland.......2002-08-28

Oliver Messiaen was a pivotal, transitional figure in 20th century music, bridging the early Moderns and the post-war serialists. Boulez and Xenakis were both his students. His music is epic, clearly the product of a visionary. This is an essential disc of his work, impeccably performed, conducted and recorded. "Chronochromie," "the color of time," is 7 blocks of music, static and forbidding -- but the orchestra plays an endless variety of bird songs! This was one of Messiaen's central preoccupations, related to the inspiration he received from St. Francis. On first listening, I found it difficult to enter this sound world, but on repeated listening, it opens up vistas of imagination. The echoes of this resolute abstraction can be heard in virtually everything by Xenakis. The middle piece, "The City Above," is a shorter work, and successfully invokes a vision of Heaven. Finally, "I Await the Resurrrection of The Dead" is an unqualified masterpiece. Stirred by his religious faith, Messiaen knocks the listener back in sheer awe with his powers of orchestration.

While the Turangalila-symphonie is Messiaen's most popular work, and most often performed, these later works are deeper, greater accomplishments, and should be heard by anyone who has a passion for 20th century music!

Disappointment to Delight.......2002-02-21

I've been fascinated with the notion of Messiaen's work ever since I read a description of "Chronochromie" in Time in the mid-Sixties. Regrettably, after two careful listenings, I've yet to fully appreciate what others find in this work.
In praising the beauty of nature through music, Messiaen competes with the everyday sounds of the Maker's most melodic and beautiful creature. While no one should expect his paean to be pure mimicry, something falls short to my ears, and to me, the piece seems overly long and mechanical. The exception is the mid-section of "Chronochromie", which magnificently captures the intermingling sounds of bird call in a delicate and very interesting way. But, on balance, "Chronochromie" must be for die-hard aficionados.
"Et Exspecto ...", on the other hand, is a towering triumph, a work of pure passion and brilliance of sound that captures both the power of Creation and the Afterlife. The overall effect of this work's gradual symphonic "ascension" is superb, and the clarity of the recording is excellent. "Et Exspecto ..." does justice to the first six letters in the composer's last name.
In summary, this recording disappoints, then exalts.

a Balanced and Finely Tuned Performance........2001-11-15

When I heard this performance of `Et Expecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum,' my first thought was on how `French' the performance was. It taps into the fascination with timbre that is characteristic of Faure,' of Debussy and of Messiaen. Everything is balanced to a razor sharp perfection. There are no colour smudges here. The voices are given a great amount of equality and reserve to that effect. You can hear everything. The clusters are so balanced that they sound as one voice, which is exactly as they should. There is great attention paid to the gongs being of individual character, so that the separate gongs create a timbral melody that is individual and distinct. Everything is structurally sensitive; dynamics are balanced against all other parts of the piece, timbres are the same when a particular choir enters at one section and when they enter in another.
However, the performance is insensitive in other ways. The tempo pushes ahead with the same metronomic drive through most of the piece, bowling over cadences that cry out for a slight slowing. There are changes of tempo, but they are mostly planned so that the timbres can breath enough, for example, to allow us to hear the beats of the chime timbre as it solos. The tam tam crescendi, which I am convinced are there to scare the audience to death with sheer volume, are subdued, put within the context of the larger piece, subordinated. The chilling percussion interludes are also balanced with one another to create one voice, which makes sense within this reading of the piece, but I think that the percussion can be much more macabre, much more frightening if the instruments were to have more freedom of expression (less attention to balance). In effect, the affect is subdued. It comes through, but it feels lacking at certain points in the work. At the final crescendo, one should be absolutely terrified; it should be huge, awful, awesome... but the Cleveland Orchestra doesn't really take it to that point. They technically do crescendo at the end; it gets louder. However, the energy doesn't come up. The ending needs to charge and then leave you hanging. That is one of the whole points of the piece; expectation.
I waffle back and forth between this reading and one by the Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra of Berlin under Karl Anton Rickenbacher. They offer a characteristically `German' reading; one that is very expressive and passionate (and that really scares you out of your socks at the end), but in which the voices are not balanced and the work is overall more choppy. I guess when I want to hear the affect of the work, I listen to Rickenbacher. When I want to hear the structure (which is also very meaningful), I listen to Boulez. Both are valuable readings. I recommend both. `Et Expecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum' is one of the best works of Messiaen. It should be heard by anyone with an interest in modern music. It would be an interesting listen for anyone, though, so I recommend it to you.

Music Review:

Music Review

music review

Music Review

April Skies [Import]

Pictures From an Exhibition

Rattle Directs 20th Century Orchestral Masterworks (Box Set) [Box set]

Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs

Point 2

Sampler: Enhanced With Music/Sounds of Nature

Mega France [Import]

Rock N' Soul/Beat & Soul [Original recording remastered] [Import]

Oh No [Import]

Mahler: Symphony No. 9 [Hybrid SACD] [Hybrid SACD] [SACD]

Portrait With in [Import]

Latin Beat [Import]

Latin Lounge [Import]

Mahler: Symphony No.7

Footprints