MESSIAEN Visions de l’Amen DEBUSSY En blanc et noir Ralph van Raat, Piano Håkon Austbø, Piano Claude Debussy (1862-1918): En blanc et noir (1915) Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992): Visions de l’Amen (1943) colouring, Messiaen carried out bold renewals in the Bird-song, at that time, played an increasingly Both works on this recording, milestones in the repertoire dancing quality of the first and by the witty, albeit realm of musical time. As he often said, “rhythm is important rôle in Messiaen’s music. He transcribed this as for two pianos, were composed in wartime at crucial somewhat sarcastic, elegance of the third. colouring of time”, and, correspon dingly, the blue-violet heard in nature, adapting the intervals to the instruments. points in the composers’ lives. Messiaen, in another war, returned to Paris in 1941 theme played by the second piano in the opening as well In No. 5 they are preceded by the pure unison of the Debussy passed the summer of 1915 at Pourville on from war imprisonment, where he had written the Quatuor as in the closing piece, is framed by a rhythmic pedal, Angels and the Saints. Finally, No. 6 expresses the the Normandy coast. He was struggling with his health pour la Fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time). played in the extreme registers by the first piano. In the harshness of the Judgement of the damned, before the and suffering from the horrors of the war and from the Having taken on a job as harmony professor at the first piece, the rhythm is a combination of five rhythmical joy of the last piece breaks out. recent loss of his mother. He had already started to Conservatoire, he soon discovered the extraordinary palindromes, or non-retrogradable rhythms. In the In this way, the Amen is presented in seven different compose the three two-piano pieces En blanc et noir in pianistic talent of one of his students, Yvonne Loriod, who seventh piece, it is a juxtaposition of three deci-tâlas; aspects in its four possible meanings: Paris. The air at the seaside must have done him good, was only seventeen at the time. Messiaen, himself an rhythms originating from the Indian tradition, used as a for not only did he complete the three pieces, but wrote accomplished pianist, soon decided to write a work for the rhythmic theme by Messiaen in numerous works and here Amen, so be it! The creative act. his last masterpiece for the piano, the Twelve Etudes, and two of them to perform together. It became a huge cycle repeated ad infinitum in a stepwise tighter canon. The Amen, thou will shall happen. I accept, I submit. made a start on the ambitious project of six sonatas “for and they performed it numerous times throughout the sounds are typically bell-like, inspired by the sounds of Amen, the wish, the desire, let it be so. various instruments”, of which only three were to be world in the years to follow. Loriod was later to become the Indonesian gamelan, discovered by Debussy already Amen, it is, fixed once and for all, finished. Messiaen’s second wife. in 1889 and cherished by Messiaen. The effect of all this consumed in Paradise. The Western front was about a hundred kilometres The work was revolutionary in many ways. The is a feeling of cosmic dimensions, rising from the away and the cannons were sometimes audible at duration of nearly one hour, the use of the percussive as darkness in No.1 (the Creation) in an uncompromising The rôle of the two pianos is clearly divided. Melodic and Pourville. Debussy, therefore, could never quite escape well as the melodic and harmonic potential of the piano, crescendo, or thrown out in ecstatic joy in No. 7 (the expressive elements are confined to the second piano the war and took on an increasingly chauvinistic attitude. the religious connotations, shamelessly combining the Consummation). The cosmos is certainly present in No. 2 (Messiaen’s part) whereas all that is percussion, brilliance Some of this is reflected in the music and in the titles of divine with the erotic; all this provoked weighty (the stars and the planets), starting with a wild dance of and rhythmic development is heard in the first piano En blanc et noir. Claude de France, as he had started to discussions in French public life. The turmoil was going to the planets in the second piano, which later is developed (Loriod’s part). The combination of the two elements; the call himself, quotes François Villon’s Ballade contre les last for years, well beyond the performance of Messiaen’s along with rhythmic pedals in the first piano. The agony harmonic-melodic colouring and the colouring of time, so ennemis de la France as a motto for the second piece. It next monumental work for Yvonne Loriod, the two hour and suffering of Jesus is depicted in No. 3 by three essential to Messiaen’s mature style, is thus manifested starts off in a dark, gloomy atmosphere, opposed to the cycle Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus. elements: a discordant bell-sound representing God’s and reflected in the perfectly logical and original way of lightness and transparency of the simple tunes in the Although some characteristic traits of Messiaen’s curse, a cry of pain, and a lament on four notes repeated using the instruments. Visions de l’Amen stands out as a treble (symbolizing the purity of the French spirit?) to style were already in place in the pre-war organ works in cross-rhythms. In No. 4 two kinds of desire are monument in Messiaen’s work and in the music of the evolve into a real battle-scene where reminiscences of and song cycles, it was the circumstances around expressed. One is the absolute calm, the ecstasy of twentieth century. German chorales are heard in the midst of cavalry sounds Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps that, in a decisive way, Paradise; the other, the carnal passion, the thirst for love. and trumpet fanfares, the latter finally prevailing in a triggered the ideas behind his mature musical language, Both themes are played by the second piano and then Håkon Austbø triumphant fortissimo, éclatant. It is as if Debussy predicts that were further to be enhanced in Visions de l’Amen. combined with various ornaments and rhythmic pedals in the victory over the Germans that he was never to Since the age of twenty Messiaen had explored the use of the first piano. experience. colours in music corresponding to his synesthetic colour If this second piece has long lines of tension and a hearing. This resulted in a system of modes (scales) with dramatic build-up, the two others are much more limited transposition, each with its own set of colours. The pointilliste, volatile and mercurial, matching the style of main cyclic theme of Visions, for instance, is written in the the sonatas and the études. The very opening justifies the first transposition of his mode 2 with A as a tonal centre. title of the cycle in its use of the opposite colours of the This gives a bright blue colour with shadows of blue violet black and white piano keys, as does the third piece in its and reflections of gold and ruby – at least in Messiaen’s chromatic, capricious opening theme. If the dark shadow own, subjective perception. of war still can be felt in both pieces, it is attenuated by the Parallel to the exploration of harmonic–melodic Ralph van Raat Claude Debussy (1862-1918): En blanc et noir (1915) Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992): Visions de l’Amen (1943) Pianist and musicologist Ralph van Raat studied the piano with Ton Hartsuiker and Willem Brons at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, and Musicology at the University of Les deux œuvres qui figurent sur ce disque, pierres comme la troisième pièce avec son thème initial Amsterdam. He concluded both studies with distinction in 2002 and 2003. Van Raat miliaires du répertoire pour deux pianos, furent écrites en chromatique et capricieux. Si l’ombre menaçante de la also studied with Claude Helffer (Paris), Liisa Pohjola (Helsinki), Ursula Oppens at temps de guerre, à des moments cruciaux des existences guerre pèse quand même sur ces deux morceaux, elle Chicago’s Northwestern University and Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the Musikhochschule de leurs compositeurs. est atténuée par la qualité dansante du premier et par in Cologne. He has won, among other awards, Second Prize and Donemus-Prize (for Debussy passa l’été 1915 à Pourville, sur la côte l’élégance spirituelle mais quelque peu sarcastique du Contemporary Music) of the Princess Christina Competition (1995); Stipend-Prize normande. Il avait des problèmes de santé et déplorait les troisième. Darmstadt during the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt (1998); horreurs de la guerre et la récente disparition de sa mère. En 1941, pendant un autre conflit, Messiaen rentra à First Prize of the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition (1999); Philip Il avait déjà commencé de composer les trois pièces pour Paris après avoir été prisonnier de guerre et avoir écrit Morris Arts Award (2003); Elisabeth Everts Prize (2005); a Borletti-Buitoni Fellowship deux pianos En blanc et noir à Paris. L’air marin dut lui son Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Ayant été engagé (2005); VSCD Classical Music Prize (2005), the Fortis MeesPierson Award of the réussir, car non seulement il acheva les trois pièces, mais comme professeur d’harmonie au Conservatoire, il ne Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (2006) and the Classics Prize of the Dutch radio and il écrivit également son dernier chef-d’œuvre pour le tarda pas à découvrir les talents pianistiques television broadcaster NTR (2010).