Composer: Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen
Performer: Steven Osborne
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA67351-2
Release: 2002
Size: 972 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus
CD 01
01. I. Regard du Père
02. II. Regard de l’Étoile
03. III. L’échange
04. IV. Regard de la Vierge
05. V. Regard du Fils sur le Fils
06. VI. Par Lui tout à été fait
07. VII. Regard de la Croix
08. VIII. Regard des hauteurs
09. IX. Regard du Temps
10. X. Regard de l’Esprit de joie
CD 02
01. XI. Première communion de la Vierge
02. XII. La parole toute puissante
03. XIII. Noël
04. XIV. Regard des Anges
05. XV. Le baiser de l’Enfant-Jésus
06. XVI. Regards des prophètes, des bergers et des Mages
07. XVII. Regard du silence
08. XVIII. Regard de l’Onction terrible
09. XIX. Je dors, mais mon cœur veille
10. XX. Regard de l’Église d’amour
Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jesus is one of the most grandly conceived works in the piano literature. It was composed in 1944 in Paris, during terribly troubled times. Although it met with a mixed critical reception, the Vingt Regards are now recognized as one of the most important piano works of the twentieth century. Steven Osborne is the ideal interpreter of this deeply religious, joyfully ecstatic music. He has played the complete Vingt Regards many times in concert, and after one performance at London’s Wigmore Hall, The Independent wrote: “No pianist, surely, can have done it more justice Osborne had a wonderful sense of sweep and colour [and] had his listeners rapt for no less than two hours and 10 minutes without an interval. Even unbelievers might have felt like falling to their knees”. Combining virtuoso aplomb with a deep spiritual understanding, we believe that this recording captures the atmosphere of this great music more than any other. Osborne’s Messiaen is an overwhelming and intensely fulfilling musical experienceone not to be missed.