Messiaen: Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, Le tombeau resplendissant, Hymne

Märkl, Jun, Orchestre National de Lyon

8.572714

Commissioned by the French government to write a work to commemorate the dead of two world wars, Messiaen’s response was not the expected Requiem. Instead he composed a work on the transcendental nature of death, And I await the resurrection of the dead, using only woodwind, brass and metal percussion. He took as his inspiration the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, and reflected Messiaen’s deeply held religious convictions. From student days he devised a unique style of composition that was without precedent, and if difficult for the listener to accept, the arrival of the exotic sounds created in the massive Turangalila-symphonie of 1948 cemented his place among the leading French composers of his time. Yet when Et exspecto was performed in 1964 audiences were again having to grapple with its language which was unintelligible to those that had yet to come to terms with the Second Viennese School. The very nature of its context meant the music was slow moving and often in blocks of sound without the lyricism that strings would have imparted. Yet however long it might take, I urge you to get to know the score, particularly when it is played with the dedication and understanding of Jun Märkl and the Lyon orchestra. Two early works from the 1930’s have a strange history, the music the Le tombeau resplendissant hardly reflecting its title, some commentators seeing the death of his mother as its instigation. Messiaen would not discuss it and withdrew the work after the first performance. Then score and parts for Hymne, from the following year were lost on their way to the printer, and only the possibility of a performance prompted him to reconstruct it from memory ten years later. Both have hard-hitting moments that are here wonderfully played and captured. • David Denton, David's Review Corner, June 2012

CD

22.05.2012

747313271474