Des Canyons Aux Etoiles
A few years ago I bought a copy of Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony, mainly because I was fascinated to read about his use of the ondes martenot.
While I've explored some of his music for keyboard instruments since, and had the fortune to hear a concert by Peter Hill of Messiaen's piano music, till now I'd never got around to any of his other orchestral music. That's changed with my purchase of the wonderful Des Canyons Aux Etoiles, written to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States in 1976.
No ondes martenot this time, but an orchestra of 44 accompanied by piano, horn, xylorimba, glockenspiel and some curious use of a wind-machine.
As Andrew McGregor writes:
"The variety of sounds is staggering [...] Time stands still when you immerse yourself in this remarkable new recording. Messiaen always was better at eternity than almost anyone else. Go on, lose yourself in the canyons of Utah under a star-filled azure sky."
The music is as colourful as the CD cover suggests and the excellent English sleeve notes are by Paul Griffiths.
While I've explored some of his music for keyboard instruments since, and had the fortune to hear a concert by Peter Hill of Messiaen's piano music, till now I'd never got around to any of his other orchestral music. That's changed with my purchase of the wonderful Des Canyons Aux Etoiles, written to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States in 1976.
No ondes martenot this time, but an orchestra of 44 accompanied by piano, horn, xylorimba, glockenspiel and some curious use of a wind-machine.
As Andrew McGregor writes:
"The variety of sounds is staggering [...] Time stands still when you immerse yourself in this remarkable new recording. Messiaen always was better at eternity than almost anyone else. Go on, lose yourself in the canyons of Utah under a star-filled azure sky."
The music is as colourful as the CD cover suggests and the excellent English sleeve notes are by Paul Griffiths.
posted by Peter at 16:27
<< Home