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SEEN
AND HEARD CONCERT REVIEW
Messiaen
Vingt regards de l’enfant Jésus:
Steven Osborne (piano). Wigmore Hall,
13.12.2008 (CC)
This was not Steven Osborne’s first traversal of
Messiaen’s fine cycle at the Wigmore: he essayed it
previously in 2000, a concert that
S & H also reviewed. Osborne plays the work
without interval, so a 734pm start meant a 947pm
finish. His interpretation is gripping, however, and
the time seemed to be somehow bent to Messiaen’s own
scale. This was a fine contribution to the ongoing
Messiaen Centenary celebrations in London.
The twenty pieces of Messiaen’s 1944 cycle present
huge technical problems and challenges of sheer
stamina for the performer. Osborne is no stranger to
this hall, and he managed to scale the dynamics
perfectly, with fortissimi imposing but not
overbearing, and pianissimi that became the
barest whisper. Chordal weighting, too, was
consistently excellent (something in evidence in the
very first piece, “Regard du Pêre”). Osborne’s
ability to delineate the most complex of textures
paid off richly in both “Par Lui tout a été fait” and
“Regard de l’Esprit de Joie”, where aggregations of
lines were laid out with remorseless accuracy.
“Regard de la Croix” was hewn in granite.
Osborne was not afraid to invoke Messiaen’s
predecessors (as in the evocation of Debussy,
specifically “Cathédrale engloutie”, in the first
piece, of Ravel in “Regard du Silence”, late
Beethoven in “Je dors, mais mon coeur veille” and the
frequent nods back to the sombreness of late Liszt),
and yet the whole felt truly of Messiaen. Birdsong,
so crucial to an understanding of the composer, was
tellingly integrated in “Regard de la Vierge”,
although in the following, infinitely tender “Regard
du Fils sur le Fils”, the birds perhaps emerged as a
touch too pianistic. Messiaen’s rhythms, so vital a
part of his expressive palette, truly danced.
Importantly, too Messiaen’s use of bald
juxtapositions was fully understood and honoured by
Osborne (“Regard des Anges”).
If “Le baiser de l’Enfant-Jésus” just missed the mix
of reverence and innocence it so requires (I have
never truly heard this well rendered), the
bass-upwards aggregations, tamtam invocations and
mechanistic delivery of “Regard des prophêtes, des
bergers et des Mages” immediately reinstated
Osborne’s affinity with this repertoire. If more
outrageous glissando gestures might be called for in
“”Regard de l’Onction terrible”, it was difficult to
find fault with the sense of the huge that Osborne
brought to the final, 13-minute “Regard de l’Eglise
d’amour”.
A
remarkable concert, and a timely reminder of the
stature of Messiaen’s Vingt regards. Osborne’s
recording of this piece is available from Hyperion
Records.
Colin Clarke
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