Messiaen: Petites Esquisses (6) d'Oiseaux (Small sketches of birds)

The lucid lyricism of Olivier Messiaenʼs song cycle, Poémes pour Mi opens this recital of some of his finest chamber music. Soprano Gwen-Ann Jeffers makes the most of Messiaenʼs unique harmonic colours in this set of songs dedicated to the composerʼs wife, Claire Delbos (“Mi” was his pet name for her).

Pianist Stephen De Pledge - who studied with Mme. Messiean prior to the recording of these works - takes the solo role for 6 petites esquisses dʼoiseaux, six brief sketches paying homage to the robin, blackbird, song-thrush and others; and reminding us that Messiaen, a composer of note, was also an acknowledged authority on birdsong. That influence is also present here with the recording of Le Merle Noir (ʻThe Blackbirdʼ), for flute and piano. Flautist Daniel Pailthorpe takes the songs of the blackbird, playing over a piano part almost representing the topographic background.

One of Messiaenʼs most important compositions - and arguably one of the most outstanding solo piano works of the 20th century - was his vast cycle Vingt Regards sur lʼEnfant-Jésus, composed in 1944. Stephen De Pledge plays here the 14th and 15th pieces, considered as the double climax of the entire cycle. The first begins with a brilliant toccata, and ends in an awesome coda; the second a more peaceful and warm ʻcosmic lullabyʼ.

Stephen is joined by the violinist Matthew Trusler for Thème et Variations, an abstract work composed early in Messiaenʼs career (in 1932). The theme begins with a spiritual calm, before each of the five variation quickens in tempo and melodic elaboration leading to an ecstatic climax and coda.

This disc, with 76 mins of music, is a re-mastered reissue of a previous Black Box release. All the tracks on this disc were recorded in the Music Room at Champs Hill (2002/3), and the artists featured here have gone on to record many other discs at Champs Hill.

Louise Bessette has received many awards for her interpretation of contemporary music and has made more than a dozen recordings. As well as Les oiseaux, here she performs two other compositions by Messiaen, Cantéyodjayâ and Prélude.

In this imaginatively constructed programme, the Swedish pianist Fredrik Ullén juxtaposes music by Liszt and Messiaen, showing that there are closer parallels between them than might be expected.

A significant role in both composers’ work was played by religious convictions, and three of the Liszt pieces included here are related to saints of the Catholic Church.

Both men also ventured into unexplored musical territory, with Messiaen exploring bird song (which he described as an expression of ‘religious joy’) and Hindu rhythms, for instance in Cantéyodjayâ. Meanwhile

Liszt in his later years would develop an austere musical style full of dissonance, whole-tone scales, diminished and augmented chords. One of the prime examples of this is Unstern! Sinistre, disastro.

The long life and passionate, exotic music of Olivier Messiaen are big news in this, the centenary year of his birth. Festivals worldwide are celebrating one of the last century’s greatest composers and his heady blend of a musical language that moves from the rich romanticism of the French organ tradition to the diamond precision of a modernism which hugely influenced the leaders of the postwar avant-garde such as Boulez and Stockhausen. His love of God and nature is everywhere evident in the vast cycles of works such as La Nativité du Seigneur and Vingt Régards sur l’Enfant Jésus, but so is a delight in instrumental virtuosity: he was himself a superb organist and pianist. All of these recordings were critically acclaimed when they first appeared; they have been reissued with extensive notes and full texts for the songs.