From: acid+@cs.cmu.edu (Christopher Colby)
Subject: Re: Messeian recommendations?
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 07:05:40 GMT

In article <1d95nvINN966@bigboote.WPI.EDU> martino@wpi.WPI.EDU (Robert Paul Martino Jr) writes:
>I have heard some interesting comments about this guy and would
>like to hear some of his stuff (I guess he just died recently).
>I'm joining the BMG classical CD club and they offer two of his works,
>Quartet for the End of Time and Turangalia-Symphonie (not sure I 
>spelled that right!) I was wondering if people could give me
>opinions of these two pieces, maybe a little description of what
>each is like so I could choose one to get at first to see if I like
>him.  Thanks in advance!

Yes; he died last spring (April?).

The Quartet is about 45 minutes in length and in 8 parts.  It's written for
piano, clarinet, violin, and cello.  It's quite an approachable piece, with
many sparse or serene moments.  I especially enjoy the clarinet solo in the
middle that imitates birdsong.  It is actually inspired by a section from
Revalations, but you probably wouldn't be able to tell from the music
itself.  This is one of the few modern works (by anyone) that I immediately
liked on first hearing.  I've heard two recordings.  One is by Tashi (RCA
mid-price), and I like it quite a bit.  I forgot what the other one was,
but I didn't like it nearly as much.  This might very well be an ideal
starting point for Messaien.

The Turangalila is another one of Messaien's most well-known pieces.  It is
longer than the Quartet by about 30 minutes or so.  It is also scored for a
large orchestra, piano, and the "ondes martenot" -- the weird electric
instrument in the Beach Boys' song "Good Vibrations" that does the
glissando (or portamento, or whatever).  Love is a major theme.  There are
two clear motifs -- masculine and feminine -- that persist throughout the
piece.  It's definitely a secular angle on the subject, noteworthy because
of the strong religious devotion in his later music.  Although the
Turangalila is not unapproachable, it is in some ways significantly more
difficult to like than the Quartet.  The development of the themes is
rather unusual and involves some interesting rhythmic ideas.  (In fact, I
remember that the title alludes to a rhythmic device of some sort.)  For
instance, there is a chromatic scale in the brass in which note i+1 lasts
for (the duration of note i) + 1.  Things like that tend to appeal to me,
although after listening to this piece several times (it is still new to
me), I haven't been able to completely swallow it whole.  There are more
than enough little individual interesting elements to satisfy me for now,
though.  And some movements are real gems, like the Jardin.  Come to think
of it though, I do remember the whole "love" idea being really very
effective, even on first hearing, although I'm at a loss to explain exactly
how that worked.

I own the recent Chung recording, mainly because it is on a single disc.
I've heard the Salonen recording a couple of times, and I'm not as
convinced as everybody else that the Chung is really an interpretative
improvement.  However, the Salonen has one disadvantage so large that I
could never buy it:  The ondes martenot is so forwardly-balanced that
anytime it is playing a loud high-pitched note, which is quite often, it is
quite literally painful.

-chris
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