One of the great pleasures
that I have had since coming aboard
as a critic for Musicweb has
been the increased opportunity to discover
new and interesting music. Many of the
discs that I have reviewed have led
me to explore the works of off-the-beaten-path
composers, and have given me a great
deal of satisfaction. This experience,
given the number of discs I review,
has started to become pleasantly commonplace.
It is however, rare, that I find a work
unknown to me that completely changes
the way I think about a composer or
even the art of music itself. Messiaen’s
Transfiguration is just such
a work.
Messiaen was perhaps
one of history’s most deeply religious
composers. He created for himself a
mystical world of profound spiritualism
that affected every aspect of his life
and work. In his later years, his music
tended to sprawl to ever-greater proportions
and many critics accused him of self-indulgence.
I must confess that when I opened the
booklet for this disc and read the list
of forces involved, I was a bit put
off, and started to dismiss the work
as another out of control venture on
the part of a composer gone mad. Then,
I listened to the music, and the result
can be described as nothing less than
a revelation.
Messiaen has carefully
chosen passages of scripture to both
narrate the story of the Transfiguration
of Christ, and to comment upon it, very
much in the same way that Bach retold
the story of the Passion. The actual
account of the event itself is set in
very stark and straightforward homophonic
style that is clearly patterned on plainsong.
The commentary is far more elaborate
with fantastically descriptive gestures
from the orchestra, which so vividly
evoke the miraculous nature of the event
itself that the listener cannot help
but be swept up into it, regardless
of his or her theology.
Let us halt here and
describe the tremendous artistic force
involved. It is a veritable host of
musicians: Choir of more than 100 voices,
with tenor and baritone soloists; a
small chamber ensemble within the orchestra,
made up of seven soloists; and an orchestra
of the following: eighteen woodwind
players, seventeen brass, sixty-eight
strings and six percussionists, each
playing several instruments.
One of Messiaen’s great
fascinations, perhaps because of his
mysticism and a desire to incorporate
the work of God in nature into his art,
was the music of birds. Much of the
accompaniment provided by the orchestra
is carefully researched bird song, exactly
imitated by the music. In fact, all
of the birdcalls used in the orchestration
are meticulously documented in the score
and notes, and they number well over
one hundred. Other works of nature such
as mountain passages, streams and forests
were also inspirations to the composer
as he crafted this magnificent musical
landscape.
Perhaps the most remarkable
thing about both this music and this
performance is the utter clarity and
intelligibility of both the enormously
complex instrumentation, and more importantly,
the texts. Every word is understood,
and in spite of the immense size of
the forces, nothing is ever overblown.
The range of color and dynamic shading
that Reinbert de Leeuw brings forth
is astonishing. And what drama! Believer
or not, there is no escaping the wonder
of the story, and the ecstasy that the
observing disciples must have experienced
to have seen Christ illumined on the
mountain next to Moses and Elijah.
Pages could be written
about the countless details, effects
and emotions that are played out in
this score. Let me summarize by saying
that the Transfiguration is a
masterpiece of ecstatic religious conviction,
created by a unique and profound musical
mind at the height of his powers.
The sheer size of this
work sadly makes the cost of mounting
a performance prohibitive in the current
economy of professional music. This
performance consequently is all the
more valuable. More than just a must-have
recording these discs are a gift from
dedicated artists to a music-consuming
public that will more than likely pass
it by for lack of familiarity and sense
of adventure. Allow me to go on record
to encourage all lovers of music, regardless
of experience or knowledge, to invest
in this recording. Opportunities to
hear this music live are very rare and
to walk away not having experienced
it at all, would be a loss indeed.
Kevin Sutton
Ludwig van Gijsegem, tenor 