DG: 4777944Myung-Whun Chung conducts Messiaen |
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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 **** | 
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