For me, La Nativité du
Seigneur was entry level for Olivier Messiaen’s music. At the Church of Scotland
in Glasgow, where I attended in the mid-1970s, the organist Kenneth Dawkins was
a great enthusiast of this composer. He used to play some of the slower music
from La Nativité as an opening voluntary. The congregation did not
appreciate it. They preferred Handel’s Largo, Easthope Martin’s Evensong
and even my own offering of Procul Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale. Mr
Dawkins played the entire suite for me in private. As a teenager, I was amazed
by the sound world of Messiaen’s music heard in that organ loft. It all sounded
so modern and even dangerously advanced, despite having been written some 40
years previously. I came to like La Nativité and many of Messiaen’s other
organ works, probably because my elders and ‘betters’ didn’t’.
Olivier Messiaen’s La Nativité
du Seigneur was written in 1935 when he was only 27 years old. It was to
decisively establish his reputation. Whether one likes or detests the
composer’s music, this work is usually regarded as a masterpiece. La
Nativité consists of nine meditations on the theme of the Nativity. But it
is more than just the Christmas Story in music. It follows the events from the
Virgin Birth to the Epiphany where God is revealed in Jesus Christ. Messiaen
has built the work around his profound theological insights which can be
discovered in any commentary on this work.
In fact, La Nativité du
Seigneur is a relatively benign piece of music to listen to. It is
infinitely much harder to play and analyse. The good news is that the listener
is entitled to ignore the technicalities of synthetic modes and scales of
limited transposition, the added value rhythms, the chains of augmented fifths
chords, and other harmonic devices. Just hearing this music should be enough to
bring enjoyment, satisfaction, and possibly some spiritual uplift.
I remember a friend telling me
that she enjoyed the sound of this music but did not ‘get’ the religious
symbolism. For her, this spoilt the entire experience. I am OK with the
underlying theology, but can see from where she, and I guess many others, are
coming from. There is a solution. The composer himself noted that some of the
inspiration for this work came from the mountainous landscape around Grenoble
where it was written. And then the whole kaleidoscopic imagery of French stained-glass
windows fed into his imagination. Messiaen was ‘afflicted’ by chromesthesia,
which is the ability to perceive various colours when hearing certain chords
and notes, and presumably vice versa. I understand that there are also some
early allusions to birdsong. All this leads me to think that La Nativité can
be enjoyed as an abstract piece of music inspired by the numinous effect of
light and landscape.
Currently, 19 versions of La
Nativité are listed in the Archiv catalogue. Enthusiasts of this
work will probably have a fair selection of them in their collections. I listen
to La Nativité once a year, usually at Christmastide. For many years, my
‘go-to’ recording was played by Messiaen-specialist Jennifer Bate (Regis). As
part of my preparation for this review, I revisited ‘Le Verbe’ from her recital.
It is my favourite movement from this work and the one I use to judge other
performances. I listened to the same piece played by Arkadiusz Bialic. It has
all the attributes of a perfect performance and a considerable flair for
interpretation. The balance between the power and the majesty of the meditation’s
opening section and the long, almost timeless, lyricism reflecting the ‘eternal
divine and ever-present word’ is ideal.
Throughout La Nativité Bialic’s
pace seems just about right. Equally exciting was his registrations which are
valuable for their interesting tonal colouring. I was enchanted by his magical
playing in ‘Les Bergers’ which really did create an image of ‘a cold and frosty
morning.’ Bialic is well able to create a prayerful mood, even when the music is
moving rapidly. This is particularly important in the skittish ‘Les Anges’.
Clearly, the final movement ‘Dieu Parmi Nous’ is a ‘Widorian’ Toccata, but even
here, the result is a ‘theological’ paean of praise that brings the entire
proceedings to a triumphant and optimistic conclusion: God incarnate is
revealed to humankind as Jesus Christ.
The acoustic of the Divine Mercy
Basilica in Cracow is excellent, allowing the powerful reed stops to be just as
effective as the quieter flues and strings. I was able to hear every detail of
the complex chords and ‘melodies.’
Why do some record companies
insist on allowing artistic pretensions to overrule utility? The text of the
booklet, which is an integral part of the gatefold CD is written in a small
white font on a black background. With my eyesight it may as well be illegible.
Looking at the DUX website for a .pdf download was no help. So, if I am honest,
I ignored the text and listened to the music. That said, the booklet does
include the full specification of the superb Woloman-based ZYCH organ. The
organ builder’s website came up as unavailable, and Norton blocked an intrusion
from it!
Finally, back to Kenneth Dawkins.
He once told me that he and a friend had gone to hear a recital at Olivier
Messiaen’s church in Paris, the Église de la Sainte-Trinité. They were all set
for some of the Frenchman’s great organ suites. Imagine their surprise when the
maestro presented an all-Bach programme.
Track Listing:
livier MESSIAEN (1908-92)
La Nativité du Seigneur (1935)
Arkadiusz Bialic
(organ)
Rec. The Divine Mercy Basilica, Cracow, 23-24 November 2018
DUX 1557
With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review
was first published.
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