Messiaen: Visions de l'Amen for 2 pianos

“Their pacing is finely judged, and they draw upon a broad palette of colour allied to a sense of drama and wonder, captured in realistic sound...in the final pages, all heaven breaks loose” BBC Music Magazine, December 2010 ****

“The Ogdon team play it magnificently, making light of its difficulties of text and ensemble.” Gramophone

“They produce an orchestral range of colour, and there seems to be an eternity of space and time for Messaien's music to vibrate, with its whiffs of incense and flutterings of birdsong. Yet this is one of the faster recordings, and the enormous dynamic range (from the most delicate pppp to a Steinway-threatening triple forte) is accommodated superbly by a demonstration-class recording.” Andrew McGregor, bbc.co.uk, 20th November 2004

“It's axiomatic (to use a favourite word of the French) that the Messiaens' own 1962 disc of Visions is irreplaceable. At the same time it raises the common interpretative problem when composers play their own music: should we follow what they say in musical and verbal notes, or what they do? Such problems don't arise with the three early pieces, which hardly show Messiaen at his best, but the metronome mark for the very slow first movement of Visions, which literally sets the groundwork for the cycle, dictates a duration of 6'15". He and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, dispatch it in 4'30". Steven Osborne and Martin Roscoe (like the old Regis recording by Peter Hill and Benjamin Frith) prefer to believe the score, and the result is an impressively relentless sweep from the faintest pppp to a searing fff.
Messiaen's library was full of astonomical picture- books, and his interpretation of the whole work brings out the violence and local disorder involved in the act of creation, even if the ultimate goal (here, a resplendent A major chord) is always in view. This superbly engineered Hyperion disc is true to his Technicolor vision.
Indeed, it's in the rich and immediate piano sound that this version scores most notably over Hill and Frith's, where the playing is no less accurate or intense. Particularly beautiful is a sudden pianissimo early in the fourth movement, and there are some decidedly upfront birds from Osborne in the next. (Messiaen always insisted that townspeople, who knew only the sparrow, had no idea how deafening birds in a forest could be.) In the final movement Osborne and Roscoe throw authenticity aside; their Modéré, joyeux goes uninhibitedly for the second epithet. And wonderfully exciting it is.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Only a pile-up of adjectives, to which should be added coruscating and addictively dithyrambic, could do justice” Sunday Times

“Austbo's affinity with Messiaen is frequently apparent: the Norwegian pianist's hushed, nuanced voicing in 'Amen du desir' suggests his deep awareness, too, of Catalogue d'oiseaux...Austbo and Van Raat launch into Debussy's En blanc et noir with bristling enthusiasm, and there is much charm on display.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 ***

“[In the Messiaen] Van Raat and Austbo shape the first movement's long paragraphs wth a patience, sensitivity and rhythmic exactitude that slowly build to a climax...At piano 2, Austbo has most of the tunes and he particularly shines in the fourth movement's extended solo...collectors interested in this coupling of works can't go wrong” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012

“Good programming this, as Messiaen’s musical language owes much to the harmonic adventurism of his illustrious compatriot...Impressive, well-presented performances; just a little short on fervour and insight.” MusicWeb International, June 2012

“Their approach, characterised by fierce dynamic contrasts, jagged phrasing and explosive fortissimos, suits Messiaen's highly coloured extremes of rapture and religious awe far more convincingly than it does Debussy's much more svelte textures, in which van Raat and Austbo seem to mistake capriciousness for emotional turmoil.” The Guardian, 19th April 2012 ****

“differences are delineated by exaggerating the spatial separation between the two pianos...Oppens and Lowenthal give a committed performance. At times they find a remarkable translucence, and there are some memorable hushed moments.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2010 ***

“…the unflagging energy and sweep the pianists bring to the full-throated, extrovert writing in the long 'Amen du desir' (No 4) and the finale's exultant last pages convey Messiaen's ecstatic, uplifting intentions without ever sounding episodic or bombastic. György Kurtág's stark and transparent arrangement of Schütz's Die sieben Worte for one-piano-four-hands add up to a slow, contemplative prelude that assiduously slips into the agonising quiet of Messiaen's opening movement: an unusual and effective programming idea.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2006