Olivier Messiaen - Visions de l'Amen (Steven Osborne; Martin Roscoe)

Information

Composer: Olivier Messiaen

1. Visions de l'Amen: Amen de la création
2. Visions de l'Amen: Amen des étoiles, de la planète à l’anneau
3. Visions de l'Amen: Amen de l’agonie de Jésus
4. Visions de l'Amen: Amen du désir
5. Visions de l'Amen: Amen des anges, des saints, du chant des oiseaux
6. Visions de l'Amen: Amen du jugement
7. Visions de l'Amen: Amen de la consommation
8. Pièce pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas
9. Rondeau
10. Fantaisie burlesque

Steven Osborne & Martin Roscoe, pianos

Date: 2004

Label: Hyperion

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Review

Given the extraordinary polish and poise of Steven Osborne’s previous Messiaen release on Hyperion devoted to the monumental Vingt Regards Sur L’Enfant Jesus, it comes as no surprise that the scrupulous consideration he and pianist Martin Roscoe bring to the seven-movement Visions de l’Amen ups this music’s technical ante. Messiaen’s signature block chords rarely have been voiced with such variety in touch, dynamic gradation, and subtle synchronicity. As a result, Piano I’s delicate decorative writing and Piano II’s thematic structures emerge in more three-dimensional perspective than usual, partly enhanced by Hyperion’s ample yet atmospheric engineering. Although Messiaen’s loudest passages roar with the best of them, his heaviest scoring boasts welcome transparency and long-lined elegance, particularly in the swiftly paced finale. You can argue that Peter Serkin and Yuji Takahashi take more time with overly dramatic moments, such as the fourth piece’s Scriabinesque trills, or that the Argerich/Rabinowich recording sports more playful birdsong gestures in Nos. 2 and 5, but that takes nothing away from the Osborne/Roscoe duo’s impressive mastery.

The remaining solo selections from Messiaen’s early period prove more vulnerable to competition. Osborne’s spacious tempo for the 1935 piece in memory of Paul Dukas is nearly twice as slow as Peter Hill’s more shapely traversal. In the Fantasie Burlesque, a strange brew of pure Messiaen and ersatz ragtime, Hill exhibits more genuine feeling for the music’s dance-hall syncopations than Osborne’s heavier, less-“swinging” traversal. However, it’s a toss-up between Osborne’s dryly-pointed Rondeau and Hill’s more curvaceous account. But why place these works after Visions de l’Amen? You might as well serve hors d’oeurves after the guests have consumed porterhouse steaks. I guess that’s why most CD player remote control panels have a programming function.

— Jed Distler

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Olivier Messiaen (10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist and teacher renowned for his highly original compositions. After studying at the Paris Conservatory with Dukas, Widor and Dupré, among others, he became organist at Sainte-Trinité in Paris in 1931. During World War II, he composed Quartet for the End of Time while imprisoned in Germany. As a teacher at the Paris Conservatory, he mentored leading composers such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. His major works include Turangalîla-Symphonie, Catalogue d’oiseaux, and the opera St. François d’Assise.

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Steven Osborne (born 12 March 1971) is a Scottish pianist. He studied with Richard Beauchamp at St Mary's Music School, and with Renna Kellaway at the Royal Northern College of Music. Osborne won first prize in the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland in 1991, and was a BBC New Generation Artist. He has an extensive repertoire, spanning classical, contemporary, and 20th-century works. In his twenty-five years as a Hyperion recording artist, Osborne's thirty-four releases have accumulated numerous awards in the UK, France, Germany and the USA, including two Gramophone Awards.

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Martin Roscoe (born 3 August 1952) is an English classical pianist. Born in Halton, Runcorn, Cheshire, he studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music with Gordon Green and Marjorie Clementi. Roscoe has played as a soloist under many of the world's leading conductors, and also gives regular recitals at the Wigmore Hall. He has an international reputation and has played in many countries, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, South America, Australia, USA and France. Roscoe has taught at the Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, and Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

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