Customer Reviews

Olivier Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus

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My concert-going days go back to hearing Artur Schnabel in 1947, and when I say that a recital I heard a year ago by Pierre-Laurent Aimard in which he played five of the 'Vingts Regards' is among the greatest musical experiences I've ever had, it is against that background of almost sixty years of wonderful music heard in many different venues and with many wonderful musicians. (I must add that he also played several of the Ligeti 'Études' and that made it all the more special.) At the same time I must say that my knowledge of Messiaen's piano music had been pretty meager until the past couple of years. The reason for that was that I had been very much turned off by Peter Serkin's recording of 'Vingt Regards' of some years ago (and which I see has just been reissued by RCA in a 'remastered' edition.) I will admit that I may not have been ready for this work when I first heard the Serkin; people whose judgment I respect have told me I'm mistaken in my original assessment of the Serkin recording. Be that as it may, I believe that this Aimard is an amazing document of great beauty and understanding on his part, not surprising considering he studied for seven years with Yvonne Loriod, the composer's wife and primary interpreter in earlier years.

For those who find Messiaen a bit difficult to get into, I'd suggest that this work may not be the first work they should hear, but once one has Messiaen's style from some of his orchestral works, say, in one's ears, it is a logical next step. And the next thing to remember is that for all its intellectual and religious underpinnings, the best way into Messiaen's world is through simply letting it happen. It matters not to most listeners that Messiaen used Hindu rhythms, or scales of his own devising, or transcribed birdsong, or whatever other esoteric technical strategy. What matters is the overall impression. And that can only be gotten by simply letting the music wash over you, seep into your pores so to speak. Eventually, even if his language seems strange at first and even if his time-scale is at odds with your own probably more fast-paced one, just let it happen. From the performer's perspective, of course, one cannot do that. And this is where Aimard shines. He completely understands the technicalities of Messiaen's style, and he has complete mastery of the virtuosic technique involved, but he presents the music in a way that does not call attention to those things. Rather, he plays the music the way an earlier generation must have presented the music of the then-new Debussy--for the sound experience itself. Debussy confused early listeners, too, but they were soon won over, strange as it must have sounded to them initially. However, once one understands more about Messiaen's technical procedures (the use of leitmotivs, for instance) this performance is all the more wonderful, because one can also then hear Aimard's complete identification with it.

Finally, I want to comment that the recorded sound of the piano is quite lifelike, and as a pianist myself I will add that the instrument is an exceedingly attractive-sounding one that is well-regulated.

Two thumbs up.

2 CDs: TT=116 mins.

Scott Morrison

Since discovering Messiaen's ecstatic piano masterpiece in college, it has remained for me one of the staples of my listening life. The specifics of my appreciation for this piece have grown more copious with repeated listenings to this remarkable Teldec version brilliantly conveyed by Pierre Aimard. He gives a more than convincing appraisal of this music as profound as a diamond, and requiring a cohesive exposition by a master jeweller. Aimard offers nothing less! His pianistic art is unmistakable, and filled with reverence and humor. Overall, I prefer this version certainly to Ruth Laredo's, and even to Peter Serkin's version, although a kind of neurotic love on my part for Serkin's willingness to be little, small, inside this music will never die. Certainly Teldec accomplishes a marvel of sonics, and the playing as well is beautifully achieved- cogent, spacious, and never afraid of those moments of unsheathed ecstasy that Messiaen was fearless to compose. While Messiaen remains perhaps for many an acquired taste, the "Vingt Regards" are as near to perfect as anything his utterly unselfconscious gifts ever wrought. This is a finely endowed rendition of a piano masterpiece composed by one of music's rare priests and imagineers, Messiaen the Irresistible.

Having just seen Aimard perform this piece last night, I am compelled to try and share with others an experience unlike any other. The chance to hear this mammoth work live is once in a lifetime, but the ability to hear Aimard's interpretation over and over again is a true gift that should not be passed up. Aimard plays possessed by this music, and his utter devotion and belief keeps him sounding bold and inspired from the first moment to the last. Messiaen's distorted kaleidoscope of a score is so multifaceted, all-encompassing, and overabundant that you may almost forget there is only one piano (if not one instrument), and this intimate recording captures it all.

I cannot speak about what this music does for Catholic listeners, but as someone who is not Catholic, nor Christian at all, I believe that this overtly religious score must not be read only on its surface symbolism. Like Bach's music, it is the spirit that dominates more than any pictorial representation of the nativity. Its themes transcend denominations to speak with terror and joy of the human condition.

In the end, it's an experience so monumental as to be ultimately indescribable.

Aimard reveals an amazing understanding of this wonderful music. Having worked with Messiaen perhaps more than any other pianist (besides the composer's wife), he is in an advantagious position to interpret this music. Most of all Aimard ushers you into the sound world of Messiaen, letting one linger in the galaxy above. The Teldec sound is clear, very present, and has excellent depth. I could not recommend this recording more highly.

I'll admit this right at the start: I am not a devotée of Messian's music. Maybe it's because, having been raised by French Catholics, I find his religiosity annoying. I also think that he has tendency to go on and on (wouldn't *ten* contemplations of the Infant Jesus have been enough?). With that off my chest, however, I'll also say that the Vingt Regards contains some gorgeous stuff, and is probably the greatest work for solo piano that Messian created. It takes a pianist of extraordinary skill and sensitivity to make these sprawling, ecstatic pieces sound like something more than a jumble of crashing chords and twittering birds. Aimard is just such a pianist. If this recording can make even a sceptic like me sit up and take notice, he's really doing something. Of course, no one who owns the old Peter Serkin set should discard it, but since that's unavailable on CD, I'm grateful for Aimard's astonishing account.

First things first. Olivier Messiaen was a 20th century composer. This is not Vivaldi. This is not this stuff you hear piped into Victoria's Secret stores. This is raw, powerful, atonal music. And I love it.

I've only started to discover the amazing world of Messiaen, and in my opinion, solo piano is a good starting place for dissonant music. Instead of trying to interpret an entire orchestra's motives, you can concentrate on just one instrument.

This particular piece is stunning in its scope (about two hours long) and subject matter (a musical interpretation of twenty different viewpoints on the infant Jesus). Messiaen's deep religious faith has produced a work of amazing clarity and focus.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a former pupil of Messiaen's, tackles this daunting piece amazingly well. This is a beautiful piece of music that may be difficult to digest, but those with the patience to explore it fully will be greatly rewarded.

20 ways of looking/listening is a wonderful metaphor for Messiaen, He had a programmatic conceptual mind, the absract dimensions of his aesthetic seems always magnetized toward an image, birds, catholic icons,visions,ritual,saints,and the piano has served this spirtual cause/agenda quite well,there is some visionary,heavenly music here as well as the obvious with #10 Watch of the Spirit of Joy, has high motoric energy almost like Prokofiev's last movement to his 'Seventh Sonata'simply another modernist use. But the extreme timbral colours this works scours and develops is amazing, the luminosity is from harmonic static chords, cluster like, full fisted although light shines in every one of them, not dark percussive bricks falling, although Messiaen has always been the alter(more powerful) ego to his gifted libertarian pianist wife Yvonne Loriod.The work just preceding this one for two pianos, 'Visions d l'Amen was dedicated to their musical union. and that work enbodies their personalities. Messiaen's musical almost arrogant argument with insistent repetition of ideas reveals a committment to his image,the colours, pianistic can be mesmerizing as in #2 Watch of the Star, where you have a melody spread over the keyboard, the high register punctuates-like the brooding bass,both are identical yet portraying different colours. Tremolis are also wonderful here another point of percussive luminosity. The work stands firmly as an evenings pianistic oratorio. Aimard long a close friend and associate of the Messiaens simply brings a highly energetic yet disciplined demeanor, with also a heartfelt sense of committment to the Messiaen cause. Aimard has an impassioned way,almost pedagogic enthusiasm for this wonderful music, yet he maintains a reserve, you always feel he has more to give,more to say, and holds it for another movement. His Ligeti 'Etudes' performances have this similar conviction.

I've had this Warner Classics disc for years but have found it intimidating to review. How do you describe a work nearly two hours long, split into twenty highly varied movements, with a weighty religious program? At last, I've come to think that a terribly detailed review that delves into theoretical issues would just bore the reader and not really be all that enlightening.

Olivier Messiaen's "Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus" (20 Perspectives on the Infant Jesus) for solo piano was written between 1943 and 1944. This is Messiaen after his famous "Quatuor pour la fin du Temps", and so well into his maturity as a composer. Nonetheless, it was written before his "Turangalila-Symphonie" and his discovery of ornithology, and so avoids the sappy romanticism or birdsong that have provoked such controversy. Harmonically, it's a work very much in the 20th century French tradition proceeding from Debussy, but the rhythmic inventiveness of the piece could have only come from Messiaen. Even though the twenty movements explore all sorts of moods, from joy to sorrow and even a kind of rage, and they employ often very different piano techniques, the work is made a coherent whole by the continual reappearance of certain motifs.

When I'm in the mood, the work is enthralling to listen to straight through. But it's a work for which one is not very often in the mood, and so often "Vingt Regards" can seem overlong and plodding. For that reason I've given the disc three stars, to try to show that the piece is a masterpiece, but an equivocal one. I'm in fact quite amazed by the five star reviews here, which must have been written by people with the patience of a saint. Most music fans with whom I'm personally acquainted agree that this is not a piece for all moments.

Warner's liner notes could have been a bit more informative. We get lots of photos which try to enshrine Aimard as almost an adopted son of Messiaen, and thus the definitive performer of this work after his widow Yvonne Loriod. This is probably the finest sounding piano recording I've ever heard, and that's just the plain CD (there's a surround DVD out as well).