The most substantial
work here is Des Canyons aux Etoiles
with its ten movements spilling
across to a second CD filled out with
Oiseaux exotiques (1956) and
Couleurs de la cité céleste
(1963).
Des Canyons is
locked, at one level, into images of
awe-inspiring natural scenery - the
canyons of Arizona and Utah which Messiaen
visited to assist him in fulfilling
a commission to mark the American Bicentennial.
The piano plays a much
greater narrative and structural role
than in Turangalila (also in
ten movements). Here it is in play most
of the time rather like Bax’s Winter
Legends in terms of prominence -
not style! Five of the movements carry
the names of birds (e.g. Oriole, Wood-Thrush,
White-Browed Robin, Mockingbird) and
birdsong plays a prominent role throughout.
There are many remarkable and otherworldly
moments including the weird cries alternated
with ceremonial majesty and pounding
Stravinskianisms in The Cedar Breaks
and the Gift of Awe. Listen also
to Appel inter-stellaire (CD1
tr.6) where the solo horn confidingly
ululates seeming to speak for the native
Americans and their relationship between
stars and sky. The horn is given what
amounts to a punishingly exposed narrative
role in much the same territory as the
Britten Serenade. Explosions
defined in granite and ice reaching
upwards to the distant stars and downwards
into the natural landscape mesh with
birdsong interceding with Heaven. I
am surprised, given Messiaen’s spiritual
and temporal preoccupations, that he
was not inspired to write something
related to the prose of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- as in Vol de Nuit or Vent,
Sable et Etoiles.
The playing here is
of the highest order in this glintingly
bejewelled music. One criticism relates
to the wind machine which sounds rather
puny and is nowhere as realistic as
it can sound. There is competition of
course from Chung’s French recording
on DG 471 617-2. I have not heard the
Chung but reportedly his reading is
warmer and more expansive than Salonen’s.
This comes as no surprise as Salonen’s
track-record in modern repertoire has
always focused on precision and accurate
tonal painting and rhythmic shaping.
Nevertheless Salonen directs a feeling
performance which I found more engaging
than his ice-cold Turangalila (also
on Essential Classics).
Wonderful English language
notes are provided by Paul Crossley.
He is too rash in only one area - where
he says that Canyons is the largest
work for piano and orchestra ever written.
You will, I think, find that Sorabji’s
various symphonies for piano and orchestra
are longer; mind you when we will ever
get to confirm that is anyone’s guess.
The other two works
in this set are well worth having and
even if you have and prefer the Chung
(DG) you are likely to want this bargain
price double for the Oiseaux and
Couleurs. In both works considerable
demands are made on Paul Crossley’s
pianism. They seethe with clangorously
virile and thudding rhythmic life (listen
to the end of Oiseaux Exotiques)
after the example of Stravinsky. Gamelan
is a presence in all three pieces but
is extremely prominent in Couleurs
and it shows. Its instrumentation
is for piano solo, three clarinets and
three xylophones, brass and metallic
percussion.
These recordings were
originally issued on CBS Masterworks
CD44762 in 1989.
Salonen focuses on
precision, angularity, accurate tonal
painting and rhythmic shaping. He directs
a feeling performance of Des Canyons
with much more humanity than his
Turangalila.
Rob Barnett
Paul Crossley (piano) 
