Messiaen: Hymne au Saint-Sacrement (Hymn to the Holy)

This page lists all recordings of Hymne au Saint-Sacrement (Hymn to the Holy), by Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (1908-92) on CD. Generally, more recent CDs are listed first, but with priority given to items that are in stock.

Recommendations

BBC Music Magazine

Special Review
October 2005

All recordings

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Myung-Whun Chung conducts Messiaen

Messiaen:

3 Petites liturgies de la Presence Divine

Roger Muraro (piano), Valérie Hartmann-Claverie (ondes Martenot) & Hélène Collerette (violon solo)

Maîtrise de Radio France

Couleurs de la cité céleste

Catherine Cournot (piano)

Hymne au Saint-Sacrement

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Myung-Whun Chung

To coincide with Messiaen’s 100th anniversary DG presents this recording of rarely heard spiritual works of the beloved French composer. Religiosity and Catholicism have been important sources of inspiration for Olivier Messiaen throughout his artistic life and form the key aspect of the repertoire selected for this album

The Trois Petites Liturgies for piano, ondes martenot, choir and orchestra were premiered in occupied Paris in 1943, and received highest praise by Jean Cocteau, Francis Poulenc and Arthur Honegger among others – with the aim of bringing “a kind of organized act of praise into the concert room” Messiaen achieved one of his most colourful and enduring works up to that point – he himself described the music as “nothing but an act of love”. With Hymne au Saint-Sacrement of 1932 and Couleurs de la Cité Céleste the album forms a triplet of rarely heard religious music by one of the predominant French composers of the 20th century.

Myung-Whun Chung is known as one of todays most accomplished conductors when it comes to the works of Olivier Messiaen; most notably in 1994 he gave the world première performance of Messiaen’s Concert à quatre, which was dedicated to Chung by the composer. Chung has produced a strong back-catalogue of Messiaen recordings on DG with almost each and every recording garnering international awards, including a Grammy in 1995

“Chung's mission seems to be to deny Messiaen's modernism in favour of his debt to Fauré and Debussy. He gets away with it in the early Debussian, Dukas-like Hymme, but the more self-consciously modernist Couleurs de la Cité Céleste lacks contour and physicality.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2008

“…Trois Petites Liturgies de la présence divine… is one of his most deliciously beguiling works, especially in this beautiful new recording from Myung-Whun Chung. Roger Muraro dispatches the solo piano part with typical élan, and rarely has a chorus, a French one at that, sung Messiaen's radiant harmonies with such purity, yet warmth of tone. Chung also clearly relishes the more nuggety Couleurs de la cité celeste and Catherine Cournot is incisive in the piano part.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 ****

DG - 4777944

(CD)

$16.99

Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days.

Messiaen:

Des Canyons aux Étoiles

Hymne au Saint-Sacrement

Les Offrandes oubliées (1930)

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Ensemble Ars Nova, Orchestre Philharmonique de l’O.R.T.F, Marius Constant

Apex - 2564604272

(CD - 2 discs)

$9.49

Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days.

Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46, etc.

Messiaen:

Hymne au Saint-Sacrement

Poèmes pour Mi, book 2

Schoenberg:

A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46

5 Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16

Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrucken, Hans Zender

CPO - 9994812

(CD)

$10.99

Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days.

Messiaen Edition

An 18-CD set offering a comprehensive overview of Messiaen’s work in recordings made between 1963 and 2000.

Messiaen:

Petites Esquisses d'Oiseaux

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Preludes (8)

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Quatre Études de rythme

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

La Nativité du Seigneur

Marie-Claire Alain (organ)

Le Banquet Céleste

Marie-Claire Alain (organ)

Apparition de l'Eglise Eternelle

Marie-Claire Alain (organ)

Poèmes pour Mi, books 1 & 2 (complete)

Maria Oràn (soprano), Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Chants de Terre et de Ciel

Maria Oràn (soprano), Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Quatuor pour la fin du temps

Huguette Fernandez (violin), Guy Deplus (clarinet), Jacques Nielz (cello), Marie-Madeleine Petit (piano)

Cinq rechants

Solistes des chœurs de l’ORTF, Marcel Couraud

Visions de l'Amen for 2 pianos

Katia and Marièlle Labèque, pianos

Les Offrandes oubliées (1930)

Orchestre philharmonique de l’ORTF, Marcel Couraud

Hymne au Saint-Sacrement

Orchestre philharmonique de l’ORTF, Marcel Couraud

Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jésus

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Harawi (Chants d'amour et de Mort)

Rachel Yakar (soprano), Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Turangalila Symphony

Revised Messiaen Edition

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano), Dominique Kim (ondes Martenot)

Berliner Philharmoniker, Kent Nagano

Catalogue d'oiseaux Books 1-7 (Complete)

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

La Fauvette des jardins

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Le Réveil des oiseaux

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Orchestre National de France, Kent Nagano

Couleurs de la cité céleste

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Groupe Instrumental à Percussion de Strasbourg, Orchestre du Domaine Musical, Pierre Boulez

Et Expecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Groupe Instrumental à Percussion de Strasbourg, Orchestre du Domaine Musical, Pierre Boulez

L'Ascension (Quatre meditations pour l'orchestre)

Orchestre philharmonique de l’ORTF, Marius Constant

3 Petites liturgies de la Presence Divine

Yvonne Loriod (piano), Jeanne Loriod (onde Martenot)

Maîtrise et Orchestre de Chambre de la RTF, Marcel Couraud

Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité

Olivier Messiaen, organ (Recorded on the Cavaillé-Coll organ in La Trinité Church, Paris)

Des Canyons aux Étoiles

Yvonne Loriod (piano), Georges Barboteu (horn), Alain Jacquet (xylorimba), François Dupin (glockenspiel)

Ensemble Ars Nova, Marius Constant

Sept Haïkaï

Yvonne Loriod (piano)

Ensemble Ars Nova, Marius Constant

Olivier Messiaen, Yvonne Loriod, Marie-Claire Alain, Katia and Marielle Labeque

Kent Nagano & Pierre Boulez

includes a disc of Olivier Messiaen interviewed by Claude Samuel (in French), 1988

“A bumper bargain box of some of the greatest recordings-compulsive.” BBC Music Magazine, 1st October 2005

“…her playing is nothing short of magnificent – superb range of sonority, rock-sure rhythm, unfailing attention to polyphonic strands, thrilling attack and tender caress in equal measure. … Under her touch there seems to be no such thing as a worn-out harmony or an unmusical one.” Gramophone Magazine (on Yvonne Loriod's piano performances on these CDs)

BBC Music Magazine