Messiaen: Les Corps Glorieux; Messe de la Pentecôte

Winpenny, Tom

8.573682

The third disc of Olivier Messiaen’s organ works, recorded by Tom Winpenny, couples his two most important works from the mid-part of the Twentieth century. Les Corps glorieux (The Glorified Bodies) is an extended score in seven movements depicting the life and death struggles that conclude with the resurrection, and is created in expressive symbolism.
His style of composition was unique, long stretches of the first three movements being a very quiet unaccompanied chain of notes, the sparse use of harmonies creating a mood of ethereal grace and beauty. This ‘prelude’ only heightens the dramatic outburst in the long fourth movement, Battle between Death and Life, before the work takes on a final beatification.
Technically the work is not exacting, but such long periods of quiet and slow-moving music is not easy to sustain, and to Winpenny’s credit he holds our undivided attention with the vast range of subtle colours available on the massive Orgelbau Seifart organ in Germany’s Hildeshelm Cathedral. It equally records beautifully, the church’s reverberation period, being relatively short, provides an ideal inner clarity.
Coming soon after the Second World War, the Messe de la Pentecote (Pentecost Mass) is an ecclesiastical work corresponding to the improvised elements he would have used in his church duties, but made unusual by the use of birdsong imitations for the Communion section. In five sections, he moves to a more vertical style of chordal progression, with peace eventually interrupted by a massive virtuoso final Le vent de l’Esprit (The Wind of the Spirit) for the congregations exit. In total this is a disc no lover of Messiaen should be without. • © 2017 David’s Review Corner

CD x 1

Naxos

29.05.17

747313368273