MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Olivier MESSIAEN (1908-92)
La Nativité du Seigneur (1935) [62:55]
Le Banquet Céleste (1928) [6:55]
Apparition de l’Église Éternelle (1932) [10:00]
Jennifer Bate (organs of Beauvais Cathedral and Sainte Trinité)
rec. St Pierre de Beauvais Cathedral, August 1980 (Nativité and Apparition) and Sainte Trinité, Paris, no date – 1987?) (Banquet).  DDD.
REGIS RRC1086 [71:50]

 

Experience Classicsonline


 

 

As the Messiaen centenary year draws to a close and with the approach of Christmas, it seemed to me that a reminder of Jennifer Bate’s excellent performance of La Nativité would not come amiss.  Originally recorded for Unicorn Kanchana, it’s now available singly, as above, or in a 6-CD box set, RRC6001.  The same recording is also available as a download from Chandos’s theclassicalshop.net but, as it omits Apparition and costs £7.99 – considerably more than the usual price of the Regis CD – I recommend staying with the physical disc on this occasion.  If you’re looking to download, I recommend Gillian Weir’s equally fine offering of the three works on Priory PRCD921, which may be had from theclassicalshop.net as a 320k mp3 for £4.99.

Peter Quantrill reviewed Jennifer Bate’s complete set alongside Olivier Latry’s more recent DG recordings in 2002 and, though he awarded Latry the accolade by a short head in la Nativité and in general, he nevertheless thought that purchasers of Bate’s performances would ‘gain many hours of pleasure and unfailingly sensitive playing’, a sentiment with which I gladly concur.

Nativité consists of nine sections, each depicting an aspect of the Christmas message.  As usual with Messiaen, one has to be prepared to look underneath the surface of the familiar to discover deeper doctrinal implications.  Sections such as La Vierge et l’Enfant (Virgin and Child, track 1), Les Bergers (Shepherds, tr.2), Les Anges (Angels, tr.6) and Les Mages (the Magi or Wise Men, tr.8) are self-explanatory and evoke familiar Christmas card scenes, but other sections explore God’s eternal plans (Desseins éternels, tr.3), St John’s description of Jesus as the Logos or Word (Le Verbe , tr.4) and of the hearers of the Word as the Children of God (Les Enfants de Dieu, tr.5), the acceptance of suffering implied in the Nativity (Jésus accepte la souffrance, tr.7 – some real growling from the organ here, as if in sympathy) and the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy of Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us (Dieu parmi nous, tr.9).

This is certainly not seasonal background music but it is deeply rewarding and satisfying if heard in the right spirit – by which I don’t mean that the listener has to subscribe to Messiaen’s blend of mystic Catholicism to appreciate it.  Quiet contemplation will do fine – those seeking an adjunct to meditation will find it excellent.  When trying to meditate, I find myself either too full of thought or inclined to nod off – Messiaen’s organ music in general and la Nativité in particular are excellent antidotes.  Some of his orchestral music can be a little tough going – one can often see where his more avant-garde pupil Boulez was coming from – but la Nativité is approachable without ever being facile.

Messaien himself described Jennifer Bate’s recording of this work as ‘vraiment parfait’, and I’m certainly not going to contradict the master.  The other works are equally well performed – I refer you to PQ’s review for detailed comparisons.

The organs employed, at Beauvais and Sainte Trinité, are excellent instruments for the purpose and the recording – originally UHJ ambisonic – very good throughout.  I wasn’t troubled by the Beauvais reverberation as much as PQ was, though it is noticeable.

With an attractive cover, first-class documentation – much fuller than one would expect from a CD in the lowest price category, including Messiaen’s own descriptions of each of the sections of la Nativité – and 72 minutes of excellence. A ridiculously inexpensive CD.
 
Brian Wilson
 



 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.