Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur

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Gowers conveys the fundamental musicality of the work. There is a sense here that he feels the music, that he shares much of Messiaen’s vision and that he knows exactly what he wants the music... — Gramophone Magazine, December 2018 More…

Release Date: 21st Sep 2018
Catalogue No: KGS0025
Label: Kings College
Length: 67 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

December 2018

Editor's Choice

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Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur

Work length1:07:36

Album only

Richard Gowers (soloist)

I. La Vierge et l'enfant

Track length6:54

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II. Les bergers

Track length7:10

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III. Desseins éternels

Track length6:51

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IV. Le Verbe

Track length16:19

Album only

V. Les enfants de Dieu

Track length3:59

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VI. Les anges

Track length3:42

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VII. Jésus accepte la souffrance

Track length5:13

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VIII. Les mages

Track length7:56

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IX. Dieu parmi nous

Track length9:32

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Nine extraordinary meditations by one of the twentieth century’s musical titans, performed on the magnificent King’s College Chapel organ by former organ scholar Richard Gowers.

Written in 1935, La Nativité du Seigneur is one of Messiaen’s most popular organ works, and a piece that helped to establish the then 27 year-old as an important figure in contemporary music. Premiered in February 1936 at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris, where Messiaen was organist for more than sixty years, the debut performance was shared between three of his close friends; with Daniel-Lesur, Jean Langlais and Jean-Jacques Grunewald each tackling three movements.

A testament to Messiaen’s devout Catholicism, each movement follows a portion of the Christmas story, from the Virgin Birth to Epiphany, with the number of movements symbolic of the nine months of Mary’s pregnancy. Significantly, the work contains early examples of Messiaen’s signature compositional elements, such as birdsong, rhythmic inspiration from Hindustani and Carnatic musical traditions, and the ‘modes of limited transportation’, which he would later publish in La technique de mon langage musical.

Reviews

December 2018

Gowers conveys the fundamental musicality of the work. There is a sense here that he feels the music, that he shares much of Messiaen’s vision and that he knows exactly what he wants the music to say to the listener, whether or not the organ makes the sort of sound Messiaen might originally have had in mind.

Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur

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