Olivier MESSIAEN (1908-1992)
Catalogue d’oiseaux (1956-58)
CD 1
i Le chocard des alpes [9:01]
ii Le loriot [8:12]
iii Le merle bleu [13:11]
iv Le traquet stapazin [16:04]
v La chouette hulotte [8:22]
vi L'alouette lulu [7:53]
CD 2
vii La rousserolle effarvatte [30:41]
viii L'alouette calandrelle [5:26]
ix La bouscarle [12:32]
CD 3
x Le merle de roche [17:46]
xi La buse variable [10:35]
xii Le traquet rieur [10:34]
Momo Kodama (piano)
rec. 24-26 February and 16-18 April 2009, Omitamashi Shiki Bunkakan Minole,
Ibaraki
TRITON/OCTAVIA RECORDS OVCT-0060 [3 CDs: 63:04 + 48:49 + 46:45]
Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux is something of a 20th century
bible for pianists involved with contemporary music, and there are now a good
deal of excellent recordings around. Competition comes from Pierre-Laurent
Aimard on DG, who studied with Messiaen’s pianist wife and muse, Peter Hill
on Regis and Paul
Kim on Centaur, both of whom to a greater or lesser extent under the guidance
of Messiaen himself. It seems as if every pianist prefers to have some kind
of authentic link to the great man, and in Momo Kodama’s case this imprimatur
comes from a statement of support from Seiji Ozawa in the booklet, who knew
Messiaen and conducted premieres of some of his major works. As time goes
on, these connections and links inevitably become more tenuous, making reviewers
and historians aware of how composers we’ve seen in the flesh so swiftly become
more abstract icons. Perhaps more importantly she was asked by Yvonne Loriod
to premiere Messiaen’s forgotten 1933 Fantaisie pour violin et piano, which
she did at La Roque d'Anthéron with Isabelle Faust. Momo Kodama is the sister
of Mari Kodama who has become known in the West for her recordings on the
Pentatone label. Momo has already recorded the Vingt Regards sur l’enfant
Jésus on Triton.
These Triton boxes have a luxury feel, and fans of SACD sound will have plenty
to get their teeth into with this recording. The depth of piano sound is very
good, the instrument close and immediate but very listenable – impeccably
prepared and inhabiting a sympathetic and relatively non-intrusive acoustic.
Any pianist tackling the Catalogue d’oiseaux had better have the technical
ability to deal with its demands, and Momo Kodama plays with magnificent assurance.
Any comparison I make deals in gradations of brilliance, and while there might
be a few comments to be made in favour of one or other recording this Triton
set is of a very high standard, and truly excellent in most regards.
My main reference is that of Peter Hill, originally on the Unicorn-Kanchana
label. I’ve kept the faith with this set from the late 1980s for, while Paul
Kim is also majestic as a performer, his instrument is recorded a tad more
thinly and has one or two twangy notes which can irritate after a while. The
Unicorn/Regis recording engineered by Bob Auger is perhaps a little softer
around the edges than for Momo Kodama, but is every bit as rich and rewarding.
Reluctant to trust my ears and impressions alone I hauled a few volumes of
scores out of the library to make sure I wasn’t talking nonsense, and rather
than go through every movement I’m highlighting a few examples to give an
impression of what’s going on.
Having played through Kodama’s Le Chocard des Alpes, the first of the
collection, and not being entirely convinced, Peter Hill shows why.
Both players’ openings are craggy and impressive, but Hill’s greater forward
momentum compresses the rhythms and gives a more titanic feel to the montant
vers le glacier de la Meidje. Kodama is arguably more implacable et
massif, but her rocks are less stable under your feet. Hill is more true
to the dynamics in the score, grading the fff, ff
and f markings and maintaining intensity with Messiaen’s repetitions,
where Kodama occasionally allows the weight to slip a little, for example
in the first introduction of the Chocard des Alpes. She tends to give
the rests a little too much emphasis as well in my opinion. Messiaen fills
this piece and most of the others in this collection with a variety of pauses,
but there needs to be a sense of logic and continuity, a tension between the
notes rather than just breaks between them. Kodama throws in an extra little
note at 1:59 – a little rebound after some intense repetition, but as stated
before I always marvel at the superhuman achievement of performing this music
effectively. A pianist colleague once told me that Messiaen’s piano music
was essentially quite pianistic and therefore not as difficult to play as
it sounds, but I’m still reluctant to believe this. Without labouring too
many points, Kodama’s touch is filled with accuracy and refinement, but Hill
gets so much more out of each accent, and his evenness of touch creates the
right kind jaw-dropping definition in the swiftest passages, and the right
kind of atmosphere in those slow rising passages, ascension immobile et
mystérieuse.
Moving on to one of the best ever musical evocations of night – or the moments
just before sunrise, Le Loriot is filled with little touches of Debussy-like
warmth amongst the warbling birds. Kodama is again very good, but those opening
chords and each repetition of them could use being more sustained – they just
miss out on being able to establish that feel of an absolute thrill of calm
and anticipation. There is a little more rubato in the actual song
of the Loriot, but Kodama thrives amongst the forests of notes which
form the birdsong, and her lyrical touch is marvellous. She does snatch a
bit at some of the fastest of the passages, which means that the notes are
less telling than in Hill’s interpretation. Where the birdsong develops its
own momentum the notes can be luminous, but the two-part counterpoint of the
Fauvette des jardins section escapes being the aural carpet-pattern
of birdsong which Hill manages to create by a small margin. His Grive musicienne
towards the end of the movement is also breathtaking, Kodama’s slower
tempo providing less impact and therefore less contrast with the sublime final
bars, which are rather jangly.
The differences in definition are there as well in La Merle bleu, but
I found myself relishing Kodama’s playing here almost as much as Hill’s, and
the stunningly recorded low notes are a hi-fi joy. There’s a funny moment
where Kodama misses out the left-hand chord at the re-introduction of the
Merle bleu in 4:16 but that’s a minor detail, her upper notes in the
Très Lent at 4:32 are delicious, and the funky left-hand rhythms
further on are done superbly. Moving through books 2-6 and taking Momo Kodama’s
recording in isolation, there are marvellous things to be found all over the
place, and being picky and comparative with an old favourite doesn’t have
to be the whole story. Kodama is empathetic with Messiaen’s feel for atmosphere,
brings out the essential French-ness of the music’s idiom, while at the same
time inhabiting the beauty and timeless life-and-death struggles of nature
in the Catalogue. Kodama’s performances are of a quality which can
and does haunt the memory, but I do have to say I was confronted at each point
by Peter Hill’s almost miraculous powers in this music. His recording is still
the equivalent of running a good photograph through a sophisticated sharpening
tool on a computer: his playing brings the colours, myriad effects and sheer
emotional mojo of these birds pouring into your space and your entire being.
Not wanting to bore everyone by making the same point over and over, I satisfied
my sense of symmetry by having a closer look at the last volume, Book 7. La
Buse variable has two fairly extended passages of seemingly random notes:
le Buse plane en circles ... Kodama takes these somewhat faster than
Hill, which to my mind removes something of the sense of vast distances and
sheer volumes of air. This isn’t a huge point, but she is also swifter through
a number of passages where sonorous bells seem to ring but don’t seem to get
quite enough chance to swell their sound. These are all minor details in vast
swathes of marvellous pianism, but if I’m being asked to choose for my desert
island then my ultimate alliance still falls with Peter Hill.
The opening of Le Traquet rieur is a virtuoso spectacle, and Kodama
is as impressive here as she is throughout the set. Hill’s 1989 recording
has acquired a bit of a mid-range bloom and isn’t quite as transparent as
the earlier disc, and I’m less inclined to be quite so partisan in my preference.
Yes, it’s all in the playing, but with Kodama as a technical equal in this
piece there are even narrower margins to work with. The tender phrases of
the final Le Courlis cendré always brings a tear to my eye for some
reason, and Kodama hits the spot with just the right amount of expressive
rubato. Paul Kim is cooler and more objective in general throughout the cycle,
and I prefer Kodama’s warmth and colour in these kinds of moments. Hill’s
perfection in the repeated rising motifs and sheer characterisation of the
birds is a killer blow however, and I find I’m still under that old spell
and, in advertising parlance, can ‘tell the difference’. He creates the kind
of magic which draws Messiaen’s birds together into endlessly fascinating
musical narratives, rather than a succession of vignettes or events, however
wonderful these can be. Having a listen to Pierre-Laurent Aimard takes us
into yet further realms of mind-expanding Messiaen realism, and his technical
prowess and recorded sound does indeed top even Peter Hill – but is it birdsong
we’re hearing? or PIANO.
I have greatly enjoyed becoming acquainted with Momo Kodama through her Catalogue
d’Oiseaux, and for a SACD listening experience this is a huge treat for
piano fans like myself. Her playing is technically superb, and her skill in
communicating Messiaen’s vast world of birds and nature is impressive to say
the very least. My preference for Peter Hill is based on a number of factors
more easily expressed by sitting in a room, playing extracts and looking at
the other person with encouragingly raised eyebrows – quite possibly while
that other person wonders what on earth I’m on about. In other words, please
feel free to try this highly desirable nugget of recorded gold – I seriously
doubt you will be disappointed. You can always have Hill from the Regis label
for very minor financial outlay, but you won’t have those SACD sonics.
Dominy Clements
Awe-inspiring audiophile sonics, and only just short of being Messiaen nirvana.