Messiaen: Des Canyons aux Étoiles

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Christoph Eschenbach animates the score with a true feel for the Messiaen language, embracing the epic as well as the meditative…it is a performance that serves as a reminder that Messiaen described... — Gramophone Magazine, May 2015 More…

Release Date: 2nd Mar 2015
Catalogue No: LPO0083
Label: LPO
Length: 1 hour 40 minutes

Sunday Times

2015

Albums of the Year

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Messiaen: Des canyons aux étoiles, Part 1

Work length18:00

$3.20

$4.00

$4.65

Christoph Eschenbach, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tzimon Barto, John Ryan, Andrew Barclay, Erika Öhman
Recorded: 2 November 2013
Recording Venue: Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London, UK

I. Le désert

Track length4:29

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

II. Les Orioles

Track length6:10

$1.00

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III. Ce qui est écrit sur les étoiles…

Track length7:21

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$1.75

Excerpt, Messiaen: Des Canyons aux Étoiles

Work length4:25

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

Christoph Eschenbach, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tzimon Barto

IV. Le Cossyphe d'Heuglin

Track length4:25

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Messiaen: Des canyons aux étoiles, Part 1

Work length8:30

$1.20

$1.50

$1.75

Christoph Eschenbach, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tzimon Barto, John Ryan, Andrew Barclay, Erika Öhman

V. Cedar Breaks et le Don de Crainte

Track length8:30

$1.20

$1.50

$1.75

Messiaen: Des canyons aux étoiles, Part 2

Work length20:11

$2.60

$3.25

$3.80

Christoph Eschenbach, London Philharmonic Orchestra, John Ryan, Tzimon Barto, Andrew Barclay, Erika Öhman

VI. Appel interstellaire

Track length5:10

$1.00

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$1.45

VII. Bryce Canyon et les rochers rouge-orange

Track length15:01

$1.60

$2.00

$2.35

Excerpt, Messiaen: Des Canyons aux Étoiles

Work length12:08

$1.40

$1.75

$2.05

Christoph Eschenbach, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tzimon Barto, John Ryan, Andrew Barclay, Erika Öhman

VIII. Les ressuscités et le chant de l'étoile Aldébaran

Track length12:08

$1.40

$1.75

$2.05

Messiaen: Des canyons aux étoiles, Part 3

Work length37:37

$5.00

$6.25

$7.30

Christoph Eschenbach, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tzimon Barto, John Ryan, Andrew Barclay, Erika Öhman

IX. Le moqueur polyglotte

Track length11:22

$1.40

$1.75

$2.05

X. La grive des bois

Track length4:42

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XI. Omao, Leiothrix, Elepaio, Shama

Track length9:56

$1.20

$1.50

$1.75

XII. Zion Park et la Cité Céleste

Track length11:37

$1.40

$1.75

$2.05

About
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About

Commissioned to celebrate the bicentenary of the United States Declaration of Independence, Messiaen’s Des canyons aux étoiles was inspired by the composer’s tours around Utah’s magnificent landscapes, including Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks, which so affected him with their beauty. This is no musical tourism however: the work takes the listener upwards, from the depths of the canyons, to the songs of birds, to outer space, and ultimately to the Celestial City.

The work’s unusual instrumentation includes solo piano and horn, 13 string instruments, quadruple woodwind, triple brass, tuned and unturned percussion including éoliphone (wind machine) and géophone (sand machine). This creates a texture that evokes the majesty and loneliness of the landscape, as well as its inhabitant birds with astonishing effect.

This recording presents a rare opportunity to hear Messiaen’s Des canyons aux étoiles which is not available extensively on record and is infrequently performed live.

This performance was recorded live in concert at Royal Festival Hall on 2 November 2013, as part of Southbank Centre’s The Rest Is Noise year-long festival of 20th-century music, inspired by Alex Ross’s bestselling book of the same name. The performance received a good critical reception, with the Evening Standard commenting that ‘it’s the teeming richness of the whole that overwhelms, and Eschenbach and his players had the measure of the music’s vast perspectives.’

Christoph Eschenbach is a champion of 20th and 21st-century compositions, and has gained a reputation as a key interpreter of more unusual and challenging works, including having recorded works by Dalbavie, Saariaho and Berio. He played piano in a recording of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps which was reissued on Membran in September 2014. Eschenbach enjoys a strong relationship with the LPO label, having released both Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis to critical acclaim.

Pianist Tzimon Barto is one of America’s foremost pianists, and has enjoyed a close musical collaboration with Christoph Eschenbach for 25 years. His performance of Des canyons aux étoiles with the LPO was particularly noted by reviewers as showing ‘tremendous dexterity in combining force and power ... contrasted with delicacy and sensitivity’ (Classical Source).

Reviews

May 2015

Christoph Eschenbach animates the score with a true feel for the Messiaen language, embracing the epic as well as the meditative…it is a performance that serves as a reminder that Messiaen described this elemental score as 'a work of praise and contemplation'.

22nd February 2015

This performance of Messiaen’s late, great 100-minute orchestral cycle — 12 pieces for an altering configuration — was recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in 2013, and makes a powerful, colourful, even apocalyptically witty effect, I find, on speakers.

Messiaen: Des Canyons aux Étoiles

2 CDs

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