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Olivier Messiaen: Des Canyons aux Étoiles

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Olivier Messiaen must certainly have been the most idiosyncratic of late 20th century composers. Two preoccupations dominated his music -- his Catholicism, and his love of birds. These came together in the figure of St. Francis, to whom he dedicated his last major work. "Des Canyons aux Etoiles..." is his penultimate major work, commissioned for the U.S. Bicentennial. In searching for a topic, Messiaen discovered and fell in love with the canyonland of southern Utah. He visited the area in 1972 -- Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon, and Zion Park -- and began writing. This was his tribute -- the stars of the night sky in the desert, and the stripes formed by the layers of rock, reaching deep back into time, the stark beauty of the landscape, filled with birdsong, reflecting the glory of God.

"Des Canyons" is a most idiosyncratic work from a most idiosyncratic composer -- it is unclassifiable in terms of form, though piano concerto comes closer than most. There are 12 movements, and 4 featured instruments -- piano (Roger Muraro), horn (Jean-Jacques Justafre), xylorimba (Francis Petit), and glockenspiel (Renaud Muzzolini). The orchestra (Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung) is reduced to a large chamber ensemble, with woodwind, brass and percussion sections of orchestral size, but just 13 strings. The 4th and 9th movements are piano solos, playing the songs of the white-browed robin and the mockingbird, respectively. Messiaen was a serious amateur ornithologist who taped birdsong and transcribed it for use in his music -- other birds featured in "Des Canyons" are the Sahara bird, orchard oriole, canyon wren, American robin, Stellar's jay, and wood thrush. Much of the long, episodic work is dominated by piano and percussion. A wind machine is used periodically, adding to the unique texture.

This is, I believe, the third recording of "Des Canyons," following one on Sony with Salonen conducting, and one on Montaigne, with de Leeuw conducting. I haven't heard them, so I can't compare, but this 2001 recording is marvelous. The conductor knew the composer and worked with him on other recordings, so he is tuned into Messiaen's idiosyncratic vision. I find that "Des Canyons aux Etoiles..." weaves its spell most effectively late at night, by starlight...

Messiaen's Des canyons aux etoiles... is wonderful piece of music but is also a challenging one. You must be patience and attentive to every whisper, although I find myself swiftly hypnotized. Written for solo piano, horn, xylorimba, glockenspiel and large chamber ensemble the work conveys a feeling of spirituality and timeless. The work has twelve movements arranged into three sections comprised of five movements, two movements and five. Each part concluding with a visit to a specific site in Utah.

Myung-Whun Chung is maybe today greatest interpretations of Messiaen. The Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra has all the virtuosity and the talent to brings to life Messiaen's sound world. Roger Muraro (Piano) and Jean-Jacques Justafre (Horn) also makes an impressive listening in their parts. This is one of the essential releases of Messiaen this year and maybe ever.

Deutsche Grammophon beautifully printed booklet includes a number of Quotations under every movement title. The first movement titled "the Desert" bring a quote by the philosopher Ernest Hello which I found all the meanings of Messiaen's music. It says "He who is to be found in vast: one must discard everything in order to take the first steps towards him... Go deep into the Desert of Deserts..."

Buy this CD and get lost in the desert...

This recording comes very close to capturing the experience of hearing this work live. I heard it several years ago with Peter Serkin playing piano and haven't been the same since. Messiaen goes into a musical space that is truly sublime and absolutely overwhelming. I can only recommend that people listen to this work several times, and really, really listen. It will pay great rewards.

Having just returned from a trip - a pilgrimage, really - to the National Parks in Utah that provided much of the inspiration for this major work in Messiaen's oeuvre, I can vouch for the fact that they are just as amazing, just as jaw-droppingly beautiful as his music suggests.

This was a major Messiaen orchestral work from the mid-70s, written to a commission to celebrate the bicentenary of American Independence. Hence the fact that Messiaen used the American landscape at its most spectacular as his starting point - a launch-pad, if you like, to take him out to the stars that shine so incredibly brightly there and to his vision of the Celestial City beyond. The piece divides symmetrically into three sections of 5 movements, then 2, then 5 again. Each section ends with a picture of one of those Utah parks - Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon and Zion respectively. Between them are movements evoking other landscapes - the desert that is such a feature of the Western States at the opening, for example; movements filled with his beloved birdsong, two of which are for piano solo alone; movements that relate through the communicable language alphabet he developed in his previous work, the `Meditations sur le mystere de la Saint Trinite', to his religious visions; and a staggering solo horn movement at the beginning of Part 2, the `Appel interstellaire' or Interstellar Call, that makes massive technical demands of the soloist as it reaches for the stars.

The music right through the piece is full of incredible colour. Messiaen himself was synesthetic - he saw harmonies as colours - but, even without that particular talent/affliction, this music is unique in conjuring the amazing range of reds and golds of these rocks - especially of Bryce with its bright red forest of hoodoo pillars - as well as of the birds, which are not restricted to those of the Utah area, but include others from as far afield as Hawaii. All this is achieved with an orchestra of, for Messiaen, relatively modest size: a pretty standard wind section, though with augmented brass, an admittedly large percussion section with big solo parts for xylorimba and glockenspiel and including a wind machine and an `earth machine' of the composer's own invention (lead shot rotated in a round drum to evoke the sound of the shifting sands of the desert), a mere 13 solo strings, plus the solo piano and French Horn. Just 44 players in all, practically a chamber group compared to the forces needed for Turangalila or the Eclairs sur l'au-dela, yet they produce awe-inspiring tuttis when required to conjure up the scale and drama of these mind-boggling geological miracles.

Myung-Whun Chung worked closely with the composer in his later years and this DGG recording benefits from his wealth of experience with Messiaen's music. His orchestra is packed full of the talent and technique absolutely essential from each and every player in this demanding score. The horn player, Jean-Jacques Justafre, is simply prodigious in his Interstellar solo. And Roger Muraro, the pianist, is second to none throughout and particularly in his solo movements - and that's saying something when he's up against the competition of Yvonne Loriod, the composer's wife, for whom the part was originally written. Indeed, in both sound and performances, these CDs see off their rivals handsomely. The original Erato recording (with Loriod in the piano part) was ground-breaking and excellent; Esa-Pekka Salonen with the London Sionfonietta was a little disappointing by comparison, despite superior sound. But this DGG recording beats them both on every count.

The minute or so when Messiaen makes a french horn to mimic a wolf howling at the moon, alone, is worth the price of the CD. And when you throw in the rest of the music, its worth several times the price of the CD.

I used to live in the Southwest and Messiaen captures the abundance and loneliness of the desert.