These two very
well filled CDs form the final volume in Delphian’s survey
of Messiaen’s complete organ music. They contain several
of his earliest published works, in which, in the composer’s
own words, the ‘abundance of technical means allows the heart
to overflow freely’. Two of the three great organ cycles
of the 1930s are included:
la Nativité du Seigneur and
L’Ascension.
Even in the very
competitive market of Messiaen organ recordings, Delphian’s
series of one single CD and three 2-CD sets, shared between
Timothy Byram-Wigfield on the Harrison and Harrison instrument
in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and Michael Bonaventure
at St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, has been well received.
Byram-Wigfield kicked things off in 2006 with a single CD
(DCD34024) which was described as strongly delineated, if
a little too cautious, and auguring well for the series as
a whole. Nevertheless, impressed as Dan Morgan was with Volume
3 (DCD34076), for him Gillian Weir (Priory) and Jennifer
Bate (Regis) still reign supreme (see
review; see
also Julie Williams’
review of
Volume 2 (DCD34016)).
The major work
on the first of these CDs is
la Nativité. I refer
you to my
review of
Jennifer Bate’s award-winning recording of this work on Regis
RRC1086 for a detailed description of the music and of her
composer-endorsed performance of it. For around £5 that recording
offers a wonderful account of the music and it remains my
first choice, singly or in a 6-CD box set (RRC6001), with
Gillian Weir on Priory PRCD921 pretty close behind.
Byram-Wigfield
is rather slower in general than Bate or Messiaen himself
on
Messiaen par lui-même on EMI. In the first section,
La
Vierge et L’Enfant, he takes 7:38 against Messiaen’s
own 5:13 and Bate’s 5:26; in the third section,
Desseins éternels,
his 6:53 compares with the master’s own 5:21 and Bate’s 5:00,
and the penultimate
Les Mages at 8:10 compares with
6:29 on EMI and just 5:12 from Bate, which makes him either
very reverential or just plain slow, depending on your point
of view. I certainly find no lack of reverence in Messiaen’s
or Bate’s accounts of la
Vierge et l’Enfant and Gillian
Weir also agrees generally with their tempi – she even outstrips
them in
Desseins éternels at 4:18.
Even in the final
movement,
Dieu parmi nous, which the Delphian booklet
aptly describes as ‘blazingly affirmative’, Byram-Wigfield
is slightly slower than Messiaen and much slower than Bate.
For
la Nativité, therefore, the new recording is somewhat
uncompetitive; though Byram-Wigfield’s recordings of the
two shorter pieces,
Offrande and
Prélude, are
more to the point, I was a little disappointed with the first
disc overall.
The second CD
of the new set almost exactly duplicates Decca 436 400 2,
on which Thomas Trotter performs
L’Ascension,
Diptyque and
Messe
de la Pentecôte in the same order as on the new recording.
The only difference is that Trotter includes the revised
version of
Apparition de l’Église Éternelle, which
I much prefer to Byram-Wigfield’s
Verset pour la Fête
de la Dédicace.
Here, too, there
are some wide discrepancies of timing, though the boot is
not always on the same foot. In the opening section of
L’Ascension Trotter
and Byram-Wigfield agree in adopting an unhurried tempo.
In the second movement Byram-Wigfield’s somewhat faster but
by no means hurried tempo is, I think, to the benefit of
the music – this is after all a representation of the Alleluias
of a soul seeking heaven. Jennifer Bate almost exactly splits
the difference between the two (RRC1087). From what I gather
from Dominy Clements’
review,
all of these are far preferable to Gail Archer on Meyer Media
MM07007.
In the third section
it is Trotter who is just slightly faster and this time I
marginally prefer his presentation of the soul’s transports
of joy. Better still, Jennifer Bate is slightly faster still.
The greatest discrepancy
occurs in the final prayer of Christ as he rises to His Father – Trotter
takes 7:12, Byram-Wigfield 10:32, which makes it a very long
prayer indeed. The slow tempo adds to the transcendental
aura surrounding the music and, while I prefer something
closer to Trotter’s tempo, the sense of mystery and mysticism
engendered by the new recording is appropriate for a composer
whose music, like that of Bruckner, is saturated with his
deep religious beliefs and who, like Bruckner, refuses to
be hurried. There is precedent, too, for a slower tempo for
this final movement: Messiaen himself takes 9:18.
Diptyque, an
early piece, written in 1930 and moving from the anguish
of life to the peace and charity of Paradise, receives good
performances from both Trotter and Byram-Wigfield. Their
tempi are very similar; both noticeably faster than Messiaen’s
own recording. Jennifer Bate is much closer to Messiaen’s
own timing: Regis RRC 2052, an excellent 2-CD set, with
Livre
du Saint Sacrement. Gillian Weir, too, allows the music
a little more time to breathe than either the Decca or Delphian
recording: PRCD925/6, 2 CDs.
Messiaen himself
is also slower than both Trotter and Byram-Wigfield in sections
of the
Messe de la Pentecôte. In the opening
Entrée,
representing the tongues of fire at Pentecost, the Decca
and Delphian recordings are in broad agreement on a fairly
brisk tempo (2:24 and 2:33), which I find appropriate to
the music, where Messiaen himself is almost a third slower
at 3:29. Even better, at 2:03, is Gillian Weir’s account
on PRCD923.
Messiaen and Weir
closely agree with Trotter’s tempo for the second section,
Offertoire,
whereas Byram-Wigfield is much slower and, I think, in danger
of losing the listener’s attention.
All four are in
broad agreement for the third section,
Consécration,
and for the fourth,
Communion – the Decca and Delphian
recordings in exact agreement here at 5:59 – but Messiaen
is again noticeably slower than both for the final
Sortie,
representing the breath of the Holy Spirit, whilst Weir is
marginally faster than any of the others. A wide latitude
of tempi appear to be appropriate here, depending on whether
one thinks of the Spirit as rushing out into the world or
working inexorably. If there is an ‘ideal’ tempo, Bate probably
has it at 3:59; as so often, she splits the difference between
the extremes.
Incidentally,
my review copy of CD2 contains not 11 tracks, as per the
booklet, but 10, with
Consécration and
Communion run
together on track 8, not separately tracked as advertised.
I don’t know if this will have been rectified on the commercial
copies.
The new recording
is rounded off by a good performance of
Verset pour ...
la Dédicace; I think I’d have chosen one of the better-known
items to end the programme, but it’s hardly a serious fault
and it does have a certain chronological logic, in that it’s
a much later piece than the rest of the programme.
For all my reservations
about individual movements, I derived great pleasure from
listening to this new Delphian recording. Despite the discrepancies
in tempo, nearly everything makes perfect sense in the context
of Byram-Wigfield’s overall performance, reminding us yet
again that musicality is much more important than trying
to hit an ‘ideal’ tempo. Yet, though I marginally prefer
the new recording to the opposition in places, I’d still
recommend purchasing either the Bate or Weir recordings,
with Trotter as a very valuable supplement.
Jennifer Bate’s
recordings were admired by the composer himself and both
her set and that of Gillian Weir have stood the test of time.
Weir’s recordings on Priory are a little more expensive than
the Bate/Regis, especially bearing in mind the Regis 6-CD
set, but they can be obtained in decent mp3 sound as downloads
from theclassicalshop.net at £4.99 each. Thomas Trotter’s
CD can be obtained in equally fine mp3 sound, at 320kbps,
for £7.99 from passionato.com, but the Bate recordings, in
their original Unicorn-Kanchana couplings, are uncompetitive
at £7.99 each from theclassicalshop.net – more expensive
than the Regis CDs.
The organ of St
George’s Chapel, Windsor, is more than convincing in Messiaen’s
music, but there’s still much to be said for having a French
organ, preferably one better in tune than Messiaen’s on his
own recording. Jennifer Bate’s 6-CD set for Regis (RRC6001)
is unbelievably inexpensive at around £25 in the UK, and
the organs of Beauvais Cathedral and Messiaen’s own Sainte-Trinité are,
of course, authentic.
The Decca recording
for Trotter is very good and the Regis and Priory recordings
for Bate and Weir not far behind, but the new Delphian has
a slight edge on all three. For all its authenticity, Messiaen’s
own 4-CD EMI recording sounds least well of all.
The excellent
Delphian booklet includes a 3,000-word essay by Messiaen’s
acclaimed biographer Nigel Simeone and a complete specification
of the Windsor organ – though no details are provided of
the registration for each piece, which I should have liked.
My review copy
originally came with just one CD instead of two. In supplying
the missing disc, Delphian have assured me that the problem
was limited to press releases, but you may wish to check
before you buy.
Brian Wilson
Timothy
Byram-Wigfield (organ) 
