September 19, 2018

  • Messiaen's Metamorphosis

     

    Messiaen: Livre d’orgue
    Tom Winpenny, organ
    Naxos 8.573845
    Total Time:  57:29
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    English organist Tom Winpenny has been surveying the music of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) for Naxos.  He is the Assistant Master of the Music at St. Albans Cathedral.  Organ music aficianados will be familiar with his many appearances on American Public Radio’s Pipedreams program.  His previous Messiaen recordings for Naxos have been technical and sonic marvels but have tended to focus less on the possible deeper spiritual aspects of the music.  That latter might seem like a minor quibble and in the case of the present release, it is not really something that comes into play as the primary work here, the Livre d’orgue (1951), tends to be one that is more exploratory regarding compositional approaches that weave new techniques, modes, Hindu rhythms, birdsong, and exploration of tone colors.  The recording moves to the organ at Eglise Saint-Martin, Dudelange, Luxembourg.  The instrument in Dudelange was built in 1912 by a father and son team, the Stahihuths.  The resulting organ is a blend of German Romantic and French Romantic traditions.  After some modifications in 1962, the organ was then restored to its former intent in 2002 and is an instrument that is often recorded.

    The Livre d’orgue is essentially an overview of Messiaen’s compositional technique heading into the 1950s.  He was exploring serial concepts and expanding this thinking to rhythm and timbre.  It is perhaps the more cerebral experience of his synaesthesia (the ability to “hear” colors).  Across the seven pieces, one gets a varied sense of experimentation that moves from intimate to grandiose full voicing.  In one sense this is a sort of next step from Debussy’s Etudes as Messiaen explores these non-traditional harmonic and scalar ideas.  The first piece, “Repetitions of Inversion”, is an exploration of rhythm and register that moves from low pedal notes to upper registers.  The ideas are seemingly transformed across the instrument.  In “Trio”, this idea continues with an exploration of Hindu rhythms.  “The Hands of the Abyss” is one of the more religious conceptualizations in this collection of prayer and a divine response.  It opens with a burst of dissonant harmony and a subsequent semi dialogue between the keyboards and pedals.  What follows is an almost macabre journey of darkness and pleading.  One of the other fascinating features of the collection is the composer’s first exploration of “Birdsongs” in the fourth piece which is incorporated in free rhythm.  Hindu rhythmic ideas are also the basis of the fifth work, “Trio.”  The patterns of elongation or diminution of the rhythmic and melodic contours are explored here in an often sparse texture.  Interestingly, the result is something that has an almost birdsong-like quality.  Ezekiel’s prophecy with its cloud of fire is the inspiration for the toccata, “The Eyes in the Wheels”.  Pedal statements are the organizing component of the work.  Finally, “Sixty-Four Durations” brings us to a stew of all that has transpired.  A fascinating organization of 64 different chromatic lengths is constructed around four notes that push rhythmic limits.  One can also hear a bit of birdsong interpolated into the fabric of the music.  Winpenny’s approach creates clear, delineated textures that also explore the capabilities of the instrument.  The sound is quite wonderful as well with none of the over-ambient dangers often plaguing organ recordings.  That might make these pieces in particular even more intense and intellectual sounding than they might have otherwise been, but it results in a crystalline approach to the music that really gets at the music’s construction well.

    Three additional works help fill out the album.  First is the Verset for the Festival Dedication of a Church (1960).  The piece was written to be a test piece for the Paris Conservatory.  Messiaen incorporates a plainchant “Alleluia” with chromatic alterations with exploration of birdsong.  The latter hints at the composer’s shift in musical inspiration which is like hearing grand orchestral music being carefully “orchestrated” through the musical stops and sounds available.  Modal harmony and more relaxed musical sections also appear.  The closing pieces are brief, encore-like works.  Monodie (1963) is apparently intended as a sightreading test exercise that incorporates interesting rhythms.  The final, brief, “Love Theme” from Tristan and Isolde (1945) is from incidental music to an adaptation by Lucien Fabre.  Essentially the music was improvised for the production and is an adaptation of a Peruvian folk melody.

    Winpenny really explores the capabilities of the Dudelange instrument.  The engineers have also managed to capture the sound quite well here.  While these are among some of the more intellectually-conceived works of Messiaen, one can still hear, especially in the L’ivre the way his ideas are beginning to be explored.  The resulting dissonances in the music quite these often massive washes of sound that always feel like natural results from his unfolding musical sounds and that makes each work its own exploration.  Most likely, this is the finest of Winpenny’s Messiaen releases to date.