Messiaen POV / POX

Yvonne Loriod died.

RIP, you fabulous, talented woman. :(

Shit! RIP, muse-who-shreds.

where do i start with this guy?

Quatuor pour la fin du temps

good choice -- tho I actually started w/a sampler called Mystic, that had tracks from across his career, and the entire L'Ascension for Orchestra (which is actually the single piece I'd suggest starting with). That comp really served me well!

These three were the first Messaien pieces I bought:

Turangalila Symphonie
Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus
Trois Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine

Although I have many of his other pieces on CD, these are still my favourite ones, and they get played much more often than any other, so I would recommend these as starters. If you trawl around torrent sites, you might find an episode of the british arts TV show "South Bank Show" dedicated to Messaien, and made while he was still alive. That's what started my interest in this composer off, back in the 80's. It might be worth looking for and watching if you can find it.

I would rec as dual starting points the Quartet (as already suggested by Melissa) and Chronochromie. The latter kind of wraps up Messiaen's whole orchestral trip in a more concise format than usual (abt 30 minutes iirc). And if possible, Trois Liturgies for his gorgeous gershwin-in-space side and the epic piano piece "La Roussarole Effarvette" which depicts the sights and sounds of 24 hours in a French swamp.

seconding L'Ascension as the one I usually point people towards first. It's early, so it's still got these concise melodies that get caught in your head, but already cosmic and textural and weird

Then if you want to bank towards the other beautiful / tuneful stuff, 'Trois Petites Liturgies' (third movement is the HIT) & Turangalila, Vingt Regards, the early organ works like 'La Nativite du Seigneur'. The Quartet is insane but man seems like a crazy place to just dive in

Or if you want to dive into the more intense / disorienting / textural stuff, 'Chronochromie' /
'Oiseaux Exotiques' & my absolute favorite for stripped down intensity that prefigures Scelsi / Grisey, 'Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum' -- the movement with almost nothing but silence and rolling gongs

Whiney strikes me as a Chronochromie/Quartet For The End Of Time kinda dude. Just a hunch.

lol

turangalila tbrr

vingt regards / visions de l'amen are my favourites

dislike Messiaen but fully support your new interest, Whiney!

actually that's a bit simplified as to be untrue — I like a lot of Messiaen's pre-60s work: Visions de L'amen, the piano preludes, the early organ pieces like La Nativité, and the Quatuor.

Now that I think of it I've felt like I've been so certain that I disliked Messiaen that I'm starting to doubt my judgment. Should give him another try.

Listening to some piano music: Petites Esquisses d'Oiseaux, Preludes, Quatre études de rythme (Yvonne Loriod, piano)

The early Preludes (his first published works) are wonderfully sensual — they have as their ancestor both Debussy's fluid pianistic style and emphasis on the individual "sound image", and the elusive and shifting modality of Fauré's last pieces. The later études could be argued to be the progenitor of an entire school of composition — it's a shame that he didn't stay in this mode for long; nothing he did afterwards matches the intellectual density of these pieces.

Chronochromie
Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum
Harawi
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Des Canyons aux Etoiles

Meditations sur le Mystere de la Sainte Trinite is a decent organ work too.

Have been revisiting La nativité and this further cements the feeling that early Messiaen > late Messiaen

I don't know much beyond Turangalila and the Quartet (especially love "Abyss of the birds" and "Vocalise for the angel"), but this late piece is a personal favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rssPmQPPTos

any opinions on the best turangalila set to get? wanna replace a scratchy previn

Hans Rosbaud/Loriod is the one I have and fulfills my Turangalila needs.

ah rosbaud!

Antoni Wit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv7pD3Nu0_4

Des Canyons aux Etoiles is a good starting point imo, a lot of sides to him in there - dissonant piano, faux-jazzy moments, birdsong, blasts of colour, no Ondes Martenots though, but those huge brass chorales...

Trois Liturgies and Turangalila are good entry points as well - I agree that the Quartet is maybe not the best place to start unless you really want to throw yourself in at the bleak end.

vingt regards
four rhythmic studies
poemes pour mi
catalogue d'oiseaux
turangalila

:D

the rhythmic studies are awesome

wanna finally hear some of the pieces i don't know like "sept hakai"

very seldom spend a lot of time with his music these days but the first two there are the only compositions by him that i would certainly describe as great

i like visions de l'amen a lot but it is a bit gamelan-kitsch

Catalogue d'Oiseaux about to begin on Radio 3:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/59gGShVsVZL0ZbgNv5RGVYc/birdsong-on-radio-3