Customer Reviews

Catalogue D'Oseaux / La Fauvette Des Jardins

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Those looking for a performance of Messiaen's Catalogue of Birds cannot do better than this one. First, a word about the music itself. Composed from late 1956 to early 1958, it is not exactly easy listening. Messiean's compositional style often does not use traditional tonality, and while beautiful, it's not beautiful in the traditional sense like Bach or Beethoven. Messiaen's soundworld is totally his own and is quite unique. When you think of the sound of birds in music, most people think of the Pastoral symphony by Beethoven or some of the early symphonies of Mahler. But Messiaen took it a whole step further. Messiaen believed birds to be the greatest musicians, and he literally recorded them and transposed the sounds they produced through their songs into his compositions. And birds certainly don't sing knowing anything about traditional western harmony, melody, or tonality! This is Messiaen's longest and greatest manifesto of birdsong for the piano. The writing is simultaneously strange and raw(in a good way!), though sometimes soft and tender, but always imaginative. Not only does this piece show off the bird songs themselves of 13 different birds but it seeks to paint a picture of their surroundings as well. I personally find this massive suite totally captivating (the whole suite is about 2 1/2 hours requiring 3 CDs!).


This performance by Anatol Ugorski is probably the definitive recording. I have also heard the performance on Naxos by Hakon Austbo. His birds are a more subtued, subtle bunch while Ugorski is altogether routier and not afraid to let the music rip! It has often been said that Messiaen's music has a little bit of Liszt in it, and you'll definitely hear that in Ugorski's tremendous playing. While you can't go wrong with either one(and thankfully, this one and the Naxos are both at budget price), I definitely prefer this one, both in terms of performance and sound engineering. The sound quality is quite vivid with excellent presence and impact. Messiaen's writing is not afraid to transpose birdsong to the lowest and highest registers of the piano and this recording captures it all very well. It was digitally recorded in 1993 with some selections recorded in a Berlin studio but most recorded in the Jesus Christus Kirche, well known for its excellent acoustics. This album also comes with a performance of La Fauvette des Jardins, composed in 1970, in every way a perfect companion piece to the main suite.

Lovers of the composer need not hesitate picking this one up. Those who are new to this work, I would recommend listening to this piece one disc at a time as it might take repeated hearings to fully absorb. Those with open minds and ears who are up for some fascinating, adventerous solo piano repertoire, will find this huge masterpiece very rewarding. I know I definitely have.

P.S. Classicstoday.com has a review of this album in which they give it a perfect score 10/10. I couldn't agree more.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this series of Messiaen's study of birdsongs. I was familiar with the glorious "From the Canyons to the Stars" as well as the "Quartet for the End of Time" and loved the sense of the sublime that Messiaen wrapped the listener in. So I guess I expected some moments of elation in these compositions and was taken aback at first when it was missing. There is something very matter-of-fact about the performance, each "song" seemingly played mechanically. The melodies themselves seem unnatural, not at all derived from delicate winged creatures. There is no regular, repetitive rhythm, no swooning cacophony of angels to be experienced. Instead the music is very introspective, acting like erratic thought; words, sentences and ideas swirling unconnected in our heads. The more I listened, the more fascinating it became. The nuances of the performance opened up, no longer mechanical, Anatol Ugorski's piano unfolded strange rhythmic layers and unexpected melodies that can be as fragile as a finch or as fierce as a hawk. The music itself revealed delicate complexities and strong melodic themes. Messiaen wrote this as a catalogue (which it is titled) of the many bird species found throughout France and you begin to recognize specific characteristics that mark the "Livres" or chapters of the "book" as if looking through John James Audubon's bird illustrations. However, I don't think one should attempt to listen to this in an attempt to scientifically identify birds. It is more of a rumination than an examination (at least for the listener, since Messiaen himself was very learned on the subject of birdsongs). I suggest you allow the music to become a meditation of sorts. This collection of works for piano is not for the easily dismissive listener, but If you keep an open mind this music will become oddly addictive and deeply rewarding.

I bought this 3CD set expecting bold and full-blooded Russian performance of Catalogue d'oiseaux, but what I found was surprisingly sensitive and well-balanced performance. Ugorski apparently delved deep into the heart of the music and his performance reveals mystic aspect of Messiaen's music through his delicate touch and thoughtful interpretation, but I find his rendition of the birds a bit too tame. I miss more of characterization and verve - the primordial, life-affirming boisterousness so inherent to Messiaen's music.

There are surprisingly few recordings of such a ground-breaking and immensely rich work (there should be as many recordings available as, say, Bach's Well-tempered Klavier or Shostakovich's Preludes & Fugues). I must yet await pianists of more artistic and technical capacity to record it, while this one quickly finds a way to ebay.

I listened to this with an open mind without any prior knowledge although I was fascinated to discover how to link birdsong with human music, well it doesn't and it is so slow and tedious I could not listen to one whole CD, never mind three.