ARIOSTI “Stockholm” Sonatas: No. 15 in f; No. 16 in G; No. 17 in B?; No. 18 in d; No. 19 in a; No. 20 in g; No. 21 in a. Pur alfin gentil viola 1 • Thomas Georgi (vda); Lucas Harris (lt, gtr); Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann (vdg); Emma Kirkby (sop) 1 (period instruments) • BIS 1675 (63:57 Text and Translation)


Attilio Malachia Ariosti (1666–1729) led an amazingly varied life, one that could only have played out amid the opulence of the Baroque era. He started out as an altar boy in Bologna and later took monastic vows, possibly also entering the priesthood. All along he assiduously pursued his musical studies, eventually assuming the post of organist at the basilica of Santa Maria dei Servi. There he attracted the attention of the Duke of Mantua, for whom he began composing operas. Ariosti’s first opera, Tirsi (1697), was such a success that the Duke was encouraged to lend him out to the Berlin court, whose ruler was Sophie Charlotte of Hanover, Electress of Brandenburg and sister of the future George I of England. Ariosti quickly became Sophie’s favorite court musician (Bononcini was employed at the court as well), and became friends with the great Gottfried Leibniz. After Sophie died in 1705, Ariosti declared his (reluctant) desire to return to his monastery, by way of Vienna. The Vienna sojourn at the court of Joseph I stretched to seven years, where he composed operas, oratorios, and cantatas. After Joseph’s widow, Wilhelmina, kicked him out of Vienna (for his ostentatious, non-ecclesiastical behavior) in 1711, Ariosti found employment at the court of the Duke of Anjou (the future Louis XV), in Munich, Württemberg, Durlach, Baden, Lorraine, and at the court of the Duke of Orléans. In 1716 Ariosti sailed for England, where his opera Almahide had been staged in 1708, albeit with two-thirds of the numbers replaced by arias of Bononcini. Ariosti’s first appearance on the London stage was on July 12, 1716, when he played his “New Symphony … upon a New Instrument call’d Viola D’Amour,” between the acts of a Handel opera. Subsequently, the Royal Academy was to commission several operas, but Ariosti was still preoccupied with his diplomatic intrigues and had trouble meeting the deadlines; only one of the operas, Caio Marzio Coriolana (1723), was an unmitigated success, thanks in part to the participation of Cuzzoni and Senesino.


Exactly 21 viola d’amore sonatas survive from the pen of Ariosti; 15 of them owe their existence to Ariosti’s contemporary Swedish musician Johan Helmich Roman, who copied them down while on a visit to London. These survive in manuscript form in a Swedish library, hence the designation. The concluding cantata, Pur alfin gentil viola , is a valedictory work that survives in manuscript in a Darmstadt library. Written in an idiom reminiscent of Handel, the sonatas are remarkable for their brevity. Most movements are less than two minutes; only two of the Adagios are more than three. The structure is usually simple bipartite: AABB, or even ABa (the lower case indicating a brief restatement of the opening theme). The suites typically consist of four movements, in the traditional slow-fast-slow-fast grouping of the Italian sonata da chiesa.


The viola d’amore is one of those colorful “accessory” instruments so popular with Baroque composers. Played under the chin like the violin, it has six or seven sympathetic strings running under the fingerboard that are responsible for the instrument’s characteristic silvery sound. Like the oboe d’amore and the voice flute, the viola d’amore was newly invented; it came into use during the second half of the 17th century, but never became a permanent member of the orchestra. Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi, and Quantz wrote sparingly for the viola d’amore, but it dropped out of sight during the Romantic era. Surprisingly, the instrument has persisted until the present day; composers as diverse as Strauss, Janá?ek, Hindemith, Martin, and Villa-Lobos have been attracted to its gentle, ethereal sound.


Thomas Georgi is an American who performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra of Australia for many years, and since 1989 has been a member of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra of Toronto. After joining that group he began to champion the viola d’amore, and has recorded two previous volumes of Ariosti for BIS. Apparently those CDs were never received by Fanfare for review. Georgi is joined by two excellent instrumentalists, lutenist Lucas Harris and gambist Mimi Yamahiro Brinkmann, and the renowned English soprano Dame Emma Kirkby. The performances are models of their kind, with colorful, expressive playing from Georgi, and first-rate contributions from the two continuo players. I applaud the decision to employ archlute (theorbo) and guitar as continuo instruments; a harpsichord would have overwhelmed the delicate sound of the viola d’amore. Of particular interest is the cantata—it demonstrates that Dame Emma’s voice is as beautiful and controlled as ever, even after nearly 40 years before the public.


When the pressures and madness of modern life press in, I can think of nothing better than to retreat into the delicate sound world of Ariosti for rejuvenation. Highly recommended.


FANFARE: Christopher Brodersen

"With his invigorating, revelatory Sibelius cycle behind him, Osmo Vänskä turns now to that other great Nordic composer, Carl Nielsen, and tackles his series of six symphonies for BIS, this time with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He loses no time getting into his stride with a muscular yet lyrical first movement to No. 1, aptly characterising its unusual marking Allegro orgoglioso' (the latter word means 'proudly'). The second movement, too, begins with ravishing intimacy but builds to a powerful climax." -- Barry Millington, BBC Music Magazine [reviewing Symphonies 1 & 6, also available as Bis 1079]

"...There is exhilaration, warmth and a kind of optimism through gritted teeth in the closing pages of the Fifth Symphony, but they only just counterbalance the violence, desperation and general unease. The ‘Melancholic’ slow movement of No. 2 is as dark as I can remember, and there are even premonitory hints of it in the preceding ‘Phlegmatic’ movement – to say nothing of the unsettling reminder just before the end of the ‘Sanguine’ finale. But it’s the Fifth that makes the more powerful impression – as it should. Listening to Vänskä’s performance one is continually reminded that it was written in the aftermath of the First World War. It’s as though Nielsen were asking how one could continue to be positive in the face of such revelations of ‘senseless hate’. The result is a performance that grips as a musical structure, an emotional journey and a philosophical statement... [T]here is simply no other version of No. 5 on disc that’s as convincing and compelling as a whole statement. ...And No. 2 can hold its own even against the excellent Blomstedt recording on Decca – superbly recorded, and with more sensuous charm, but perhaps a little too cosy in comparison. There’s nothing comfortable about this Nielsen." -- Stephen Johnson, BBC Music Magazine [reviewing Symphonies 2 & 5, Bis 1289]

"How do you know that a new recording really has what it takes? For a critic the best answer is probably when he finds himself sneaking time out of his reviewing schedule to listen to it again – and again. Which is what has been happening for me with Osmo Vänskä’s Nielsen Fourth. It isn’t just that it’s powerfully conceived and compelling from first to last (and excellently recorded); the further the performance progresses, the more urgent and moving becomes that sense of what Nielsen called ‘yearning for life, for life’s essence’... [T]he sense of heroic, furious determination grows towards the finale, and is vindicated at the close as the great first movement melody re-emerges through fusillades of hostile timpani (in tune, for a change)... Vänskä’s account of the Third Symphony is almost as convincing. The first movement has terrific energy, and the finale benefits from Vänskä’s rugged determination. But impressive as the slow movement is, I miss the sense of awe, spaciousness and ultimate rapture in Herbert Blomstedt’s version – still my top recommendation. It’s a close-run thing, though, and Vänskä does have a particularly convincing view of the symphony as a whole statement. It’s the Fourth, though, that makes this disc a must-have." -- Stephen Johnson, BBC Music Magazine [reviewing Symphonies 3 & 4, Bis 1209]

Carl Nielsen has sometimes been described as the most underrated composer of the 20th century, but most critics would certainly agree that his Six Symphonies, composed between 1891 and 1925, belong to the great classics of their period. Osmo Vänskä's cycle of the works with the BBC Scottish SO was recorded after his landmark series of the symphonies of Sibelius and before his highly acclaimed cycle of those by Beethoven. Originally released on three separate discs, these accounts of the Danish master's works were received with great interest by the reviewers, with the performance of the Fourth being described as 'of great character and fire' in International Record Review, the recording of Symphony No.5 called 'a first choice, full of intensity' in BBC Music Magazine, and the Sixth accorded reference status in Répertoire. For this boxed set edition, three shorter orchestral works have been included, namely the concert overtures Helios and Saga-Dream, and the 'pastoral scene' Pan and Syrinx. In these previously unreleased recordings, Vänskä conducts the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, which he led for twenty years and with which he has enjoyed such notable successes in music by Sibelius, Kalevi Aho and Rautavaara.

• On his 16th birthday, Andrew Litton received a solo album of Oscar Peterson playing his own jazz improvisations. Gobsmacked, he began collecting all of Peterson’s recordings. Coming across transcriptions of Peterson’s improvisations, he then began collecting and learning them himself. Now, in tribute to his hero, Mr. Litton has recorded his own performances of some of these transcriptions, including Monk’s ‘Round Midnight, Billy Strayhorn’s Take the ‘A’ Train and Thad Jones’ A Child Is Born.

Widely regarded as one of today's most important composers of orchestral music, Kalevi Aho has written fifteen symphonies to date, but also twenty concertos. Indeed, he himself describes his on-going series of concertos for each of the main instruments in the Romantic symphony orchestra as 'one of the most important and most ambitious of my composition projects'.

One of the latest additions to this series is the Horn Concerto, composed for the Finnish horn-player Annu Salminen who also performs it on the present recording. The one-movement work differs from Aho's other concertos in that it includes what the composer describes as a 'ritualistic' element: the horn’s first entries are heard from backstage, after which the soloist enters the stage, moving gradually from left to right before leaving the stage again towards the end.

In the Concerto for Theremin, there is also a theatrical element, this time springing from the nature of the instrument itself. Invented in 1920, the theremin is the world's first electronic instrument, and consists of two antennae, both of which respond to the movements of the player's hand in the air. The instrument is played without being touched, and Aho describes the experience of hearing it as 'magical – the soloist is like a magician, a weaver of spells, producing music just by moving his hands without touching the instrument at all.' After having been introduced to the theremin by Carolina Eyck, and deciding to write a work for her and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, this 'shamanistic aspect' led Aho to conceive of 'Eight Seasons': a concerto in eight movements, played without a break, and based on the traditional division of the year by the Sami, the indigenous people of Lapland. The wide range of sounds and effects available on the theremin are used by Aho to depict seasonal events such as the first frost, the melting of the ice and the midnight sun, and his score also exploits Carolina Eyck's unusual ability to simultaneously sing and play the theremin.

This disc also includes a video clip, playable on your computer, with Carolina Eyck’s introduction to the theremin and to Kalevi Aho’s concerto.

REVIEWS:

It's very nice to see Christina Ortiz back in the saddle for a major recording. As you may recall, she recorded a lot of stuff, mostly very good, for EMI, and also did the complete Villa-Lobos piano concertos for Decca. She probably knows the style and the music as well or better than anyone alive, and her playing here has real sweep and bravura, particularly in the quick outer sections of what is basically a three-movements-in-one sort of structure. The work is one of the composer's major masterpieces, and with brilliant sonics, you'd have to be crazy not to buy this disc if you have even a shred of interest in Villa-Lobos... Choros No. 5, subtitled "Brazilian Soul", is a five-minute piano solo that not surprisingly sounds like an extended cadenza from No. 11. Ortiz plays it with unaffected gusto and a powerful lyrical impulse. Choros No. 7 is scored for an exotic assortment of strings, winds (including saxophone), and offstage tam-tam... It's hugely fun and full of timbres and textures that you'll find nowhere else. If this disc signals the start of a complete Choros series with these forces on BIS, we're in for a real treat.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

While Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras series may be better known or more popular (at least in part), his Choros pieces are just as fine... It's high time that a label decided to record the entire sequence, and if you've been following these releases you already know just how exceptional the results are likely to be... This newcomer certainly doesn't disappoint. John Neschling leads his São Paulo forces in performances that offer the last word in glittering color and rhythmic exuberance, engineered with maximum realism and impact. The shorter, more intimate pieces are strategically placed in between the big orchestral works, making the entire disc a fabulously varied program that offers eloquent proof of Villa-Lobos' range and originality. Kudos also go to guitarist Fabio Zanon for his soulful reading of Choros No. 1, and to the various brass players for their vibrant reading of the quirkily scored No. 4. You're going to love this!

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com [reviewing the original release of Choros Vol. 2]

There is nothing to criticize here: it's all wonderful. This final volume in BIS's survey of the extant Choros pieces by Villa-Lobos (Nos. 13 and 14 are lost) offers in some ways the most interesting and varied assortment of the bunch. Introduction to the Choros features orchestra plus solo guitar, the latter splendidly played by Fabio Zanon. It's a soulful, evocative piece full of good tunes and colorful scoring, and you'll probably grow old and die before your local orchestra plays it live. Two Choros (Bis), a coda to the larger series of 12 numbered works, is a substantial pair of duets for violin and cello.

Choros No. 2 is another duet, this time for flute and clarinet; No. 3 is a brief chorus for male voices, winds, and percussion; No. 10 is a vibrant, primal piece for orchestra and mixed choir, while No. 12 is one of the composer's grandest and most successful large works for orchestra (it lasts more than half an hour). As already suggested, the performances are all splendid, the sonics terrific. I've already listened to this disc a dozen times, and look forward to the next dozen. Don't miss it. [11/20/2008]

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com [reviewing the original release of Choros Vol. 3]

The primary novelty here is the piano-solo original version of Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, an interesting alternative to the more familiar setting for orchestra... Jean-Louis Steuerman [gives] a fine performance... Both wind players sound terrific in the brief and quirky Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6, and soprano Donna Brown sings (and hums) really beautifully in the popular No. 5. I was particularly taken with her clarity of diction and accuracy of intonation in the rapid-fire second movement. Here, and in Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1, the cello section of the São Paulo Symphony plays magnificently, with incisive rhythms (check out the first movement of No. 1) and a big, rich tone. As usual, BIS's engineering is excellent... It looks to be the Bachianas Brasileiras cycle of choice, assuming standards remain this high.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com [reviewing the original release of Bachianas Brasilieras 1, 4 (piano), 5 and 6]

This new installment of what looks to be the complete orchestral Bachianas Brasileiras is as fine as the previous one. Lest this be taken for granted, bear in mind that the worst complete set of the "BB" came from Brazil. The music needs more than just a feel for the idiom: it needs to be splendidly played and recorded, which fortunately is the case here. Both Nos. 7 and 8 take a four-movement form best summed up as "prelude, aria/dance, toccata, and fugue". Under Robert Minczuk, the orchestra plays with real panache in the toccatas, but also with powerful lyrical impetus in No. 7's opening movement, which rises to a climax of positively Tchaikovskian emotion. BIS also offers a special bonus in letting us hear both versions of BB No. 9, for wordless chorus and for string orchestra. The former is all but unknown, and if the choral singing is sometimes a bit rough and ready (the parts are atrociously difficult), just having the vocal version readily available at last represents a unique treat. The engineering is typically excellent. For fans of the composer, this is self-recommending.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com [reviewing the original release of Bachianas Brasilieras 7-9]

These performances of Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 2 and 4 easily are the finest available. The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra certainly ought to know how to play this music, and do they ever! You'll be amazed at how effortlessly the strings articulate the hellish motor-rhythms in the finale of No. 4, or how the players differentiate the percussion timbres in the "train" movement of No. 2. Even if you know these works well, it's like hearing them for the first time. In No. 3 for piano and orchestra, not one of the best pieces in the series, conductor Roberto Minczuk shapes a performance quite similar to that on the composer's own EMI recording, albeit with infinitely greater sound and much, much better playing.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com [reviewing the original release of Bachianas Brasilieras 2, 3 and 4 (orchestral)]

Allan Pettersson is best known, even notorious in some circles, for having composed some of the bleakest symphonic music of the post-war era, especially those works cast in a single, uninterrupted movement filling a vast, grim canvass. Among his earliest mature compositions, however, stands this remarkable cycle of seven sonatas for two violins, all written in 1951. These are compact works ranging from three-and-a-half to 13 minutes in length. Each foam at the mouth with nervous, creative energy and relentless virtuosic demands. Folk-related themes plus fingerprint ostinatos and repeated notes morph into twisted images in a room full of fun house mirrors. Shrieking glissandos and stabbing pizzicatos spruce up Pettersson's visionary string deployment, which often gives the illusion of more than a mere pair of fiddlers. For the most part, Martin and Cecilia Gelland bring out the music's unbridled, daring aspects to more cogent effect than the Grünfarb/Mannberg violin duo that pioneered the sonatas in the late 1970s on the Caprice label. Some listeners, though, may prefer the earlier duo's suaver and steadier opening in the First Sonata. A group of violin/piano miniatures fills out the disc. These early, brooding character pieces are both somber and fragile, and are sensitively played by Martin Gelland and pianist Lennart Wallin. There's little to choose between Wallin's stark reading of Petterson's 1945 Lamento and Volker Banfield's slightly more animated, flowing version on CPO. Alexander Keuk's clear and useful annotations will appeal to curious Pettersson neophytes. If you've never encountered Pettersson's uncompromising brand of modernism, the sonatas for two violins are the best place to start. --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

It is tempting to think of Nathaniel Shilkret?s Trombone Concerto as Rhapsody in Blue light, as there are many similarities, and the Swedish composer openly expressed his debt to Gershwin. According to the liner notes, it was, in fact, Shilkret himself who conducted the premiere of Rhapsody in Blue , after Paul Whitman, who usually gets the credit, could not agree on tempos with the composer. But the works are not really kissing cousins. Shilkret?s opening movement owes more to central European light dance music than to American jazz, sounding as if it would be right at home at a Viennese pops concert, or even as a Hollywood soundtrack from the 30s (most of which were written by central European émigrés). The next two movements are filled with blue notes and syncopation, conjuring the jaunty swagger of An American in Paris more so than the Rhapsody . The Concerto was first performed, in 1945, under the combined direction of Tommy Dorsey and Leopold Stokowski, who commissioned the work. Lindberg?s performance sounds spot-on, casually virtuosic, with wonderful expressivity and tonal luster.


This CD is worth acquiring for the Shilkret alone, which is a good thing, since the rest of the program is, well, a bit weird. Please notice I didn?t say bad; this is a matter of taste. My colleague William Zagorski enjoyed an earlier BIS recording of Lindberg?s Helikon Wasp , among other pieces, seeming to enjoy the iconoclastic bent of the composer, for whom ?arid musicological debate is excoriated.? Indeed.


The contemporary Swedish composer Fredrik Högberg gives us the campy concerto subtitled ?The Return of Kit Bones,? with English dialogue, supposedly inspired by Spaghetti westerns, but with heavy doses of schlocky Broadway musical mannerisms as well. Sensitive listeners should be prepared for the occasional scatology. Charming and rather goofy stuff this, and, musically, as light as a feather.


Trombone fanciers will surely want to hear the fabulous playing of Christian Lindberg showcased on this CD, and the Shilkret Concerto is a veritable revelation. Suggestion for a future release; the Shilkret along with the equally neglected and completely delightful Trombone Concerto of Nino Rota.


FANFARE: Peter Burwasser

In his autobiography, Igor Stravinsky wrote of his not having had an ''great liking'' for the combination of strings and piano. That there nevertheless are a number of chamber works by him featuring the violin is to a large extent due to the violinist Samuel Dushkin. The two were introduced to each other by Stravinsky's german music publisher who wanted to persuade him to compose a violin concerto. They obviously hit it off: their collaboration continued after the concerto had come into being in 1931, and they devised a recital programme to perform together on tours. The centrepiece was Duo concertant which Stravinsky completed in 1932 as his only original composition for violin and piano. Rather than looking for common ground between the two instruments, Stravinsky aimed to emphasize their individuality in a work that he himself claimed was ''determined by my love of the pastoral poets of antiquity and their scholarly art and technique''. The other pieces on this album are, with one exception, arrangements of Stravinsky's own works including The Firebird, Petrushka and Le rossignol. The majority were made for and in collaboration with Dushkin, but a few come from the 1920's and were intended for the violinist Paul Kochanski. One of these is the Suite for Violin and Piano, arranged from the ballet Pulcinella - material that Stravinsky revisited in the 1930's in order to make a new version for Dushkin. With this programme, and in the company of the eminent Russian pianist Peter Laul, the highly virtuosic and temperamental violinist Ilya Gringolts makes his return to BIS.

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REVIEW:

On this fine new BIS release, young Russian violinist Ilya Gringolts turns to music of Igor Stravinsky, featuring his two major works for violin and piano, the Duo Concertante and the Suite for Violin and Piano, among other works. All is played to perfection. Excellent, natural sonic picture. Recommended!

– Classical CD Review

This is a fabulous recital showcasing a stunning array of musical invention by the great shape-shifting composer of the 20th century. The engineers at BIS have deft hands when it comes to arranging microphones, and the presentation of the CD is especially fine with photogravure fern images on front and back. For fiddle or Stravinsky fans, this production is not to be missed.

– Audiophile Audition

Consistently rewarding, and a must for Messiaen fans.

I have long been a fan of Hans-Ola Ericsson's playing, and am still under the spell of his Four Beast's Amen which remains a must for all interested in contemporary work for organ. Another must for all of those interested in 20 ^th century organ music is the oeuvre of Olivier Messiaen, created on the great Cavaillé-Coll organ in the Church of La Trinité in Paris, where the composer was organist for most of his life. Anyone even vaguely interested in Messiaen's work may have noticed the original single discs of this set when they came out between 1989 and 1992, with their distinctive 18 ^th century bird illustrations by Olof Rudbeck. It is unfortunate that we lose these in this re-release, but with a significant number of Messiaen CDs appearing with birds on the cover it is understandable that the designers went for a different look. Fortunately, even in this now budget '7 CDs for the price of 3' box, we get Anders Eckenberg's excellent booklet notes pretty much as they appeared on the original releases. The musical content is preserved and enhanced with the addition of the three works which were discovered after Messiaen's death, and disc 7 even includes the birdsong recordings which were on the original volume 6, and Dr. Gustaf Aulén's descriptions of each bird are included at the end of the booklet. No-one will be disappointed by the chunky booklet which makes up much of the weight of this box, and the texts are worth its price on their own.

I have to admit to being something of a Messiaen organ junkie, having started my addiction with Gillian Weir's broadcast recordings on BBC Radio 3 way back in the early 1980s. Though recorded in association with Radio 3, her recordings on the set from Collins Classics 70312 are not those which I used to have scattered around on well worn cassette tapes, and this box is anyway alas no longer available. These recordings can now be sought out on individual discs from the Priory label, and by all accounts are still in the front rank. While we are dealing with blanket comparisons, there is one set which I've had pass through my collection which is no longer resident, that played by Willem Tanke originally on the Lindenberg label, and now available on Brilliant Classics. This is a very good set played on the incredible organ and acoustic of the St. Bavo Basilica in Haarlem, and is every bit worth its current modest asking price. I'm afraid I found it a bit on the dull side however, and not quite able to get the sap rising in quite the same way as some of the other recordings I have as references. If I were to pin my colours to the mast, then my reasons for not warming to this set would have to be its rather down to earth character which, in works of a conception and content which almost always have a strong spiritual element, loses too much of the essence of Messiaen's message.

Neither of the aforementioned sets included the Monodie, Offrande au Saint Sacrement or Prélude, which are later discoveries and are also missing from the almost legendary set played by Jennifer Bate, now available in a box on the Regis label RRC 6001, formerly on Unicorn-Kanchna, and also available separately as individual or double discs. For completists, these pieces do form part of the Deutsche Grammophon 471 480-2 set played by Olivier Latry on the organ of Notre-Dame in Paris, which is my other main reference. Both of these have been reviewed elsewhere on this site. A footnote to this list but by no means least in significance is the collection of Messiaen's own recordings. Made in 1956, these are in often less than glorious mono and on a La Trinité organ which was badly in need of restoration or re-tuning at the very least. The relics which appear on a 4 CD collection CZS 7 67400 2 called par lui-même are however priceless records of the composer's own playing, although the improvisatory quality he brings to some of the music means that organists should probably beware of taking these versions as being the gospel truth when it comes to interpretation.

Hans-Ola Ericsson's recordings on the BIS label have long been acclaimed as being among the best of the more recent recordings, and returning to his set in this context is for me like greeting an old friend. Returning to the shelves at a very attractive price and with full booklet notes, I would like to recommend this set unreservedly, and then spend the time saved by not writing a hugely long review standing on a street corner persuading people to try it and buy it. There is more to be said however, and it feels more like a privilege than a duty to be getting my teeth into a set of pieces which I feel are some of the best works of the last century in any medium. As well as this, I've recently been discovering more about the organ works of Charles Tournemire, so I've also grown up a bit and now have a better understanding of the way in which Messiaen represents a quantum leap in the French organ tradition.

The main body of these recordings were made on the 1987 Grönlund organ at Luleå Cathedral, Sweden. A very fine new instrument, this has plenty of the 'orchestral' punch which Messiaen's work often requires, as well as being able to conjure those soft, timeless meditations which take us into different realms. A comparison with either Latry or Bate on their authentically French instruments does however show a marked difference in character. Messiaen's writing, much as I love and admire it, does embrace the sometimes blowsy and colourfully exhibitionist side of the Catholic faith, and the Swedish instrument does seem to have something of a civilising effect on the music at times. Listen to the Transports de joie from L'ascension from Latry in Paris and revel in unctuous, almost unnaturally spectral splendour. Take the same track with Bate in the massive acoustic of St. Pierre de Beauvais and you feel as if your entire being is being lifted from the ground on some kind of spiritual hovercraft. The impact is there with Ericsson, but there is a sense of restraint, of an elegance and roundness of sound, of power unleashed but not hitting the listener in quite such a physical fashion.

There is one such piece which, almost seeming to have been designed for the psychological slow cut in a high class movie, to me has to have that sense of physical connection - you need to feel your chest wanting to rise above your head. The eternally rising progressions in Apparition de l'Église Éternelle deliberately form a kind of musical drug, each repetition reinforcing the last. Ericsson's sense of mounting drama is wonderful in this piece, and the instrument supports him in giving the impression of an almost endless reserve of crescendo. Jennifer Bate has a more insinuating, nasal and reedy sound from the organ in the opening, and this means that the contrast with the change of stops about 3:00 in is more pronounced. This again is a recording which hits the spot - corny as hell, but one to scream from the rooftops. Latry opens his set for DG with this piece, and what a curtain raiser. He does however come in shortest - 9.45 to Ericsson's 11:11, and I do feel some of the rising tension is lost in the pacing of the piece, spectacular though the organ sound is. In a sense it's too spectacular - all grimly earnest show and rather less content. I prefer the more subtle colourings of the other two recordings.

La Nativité du Seigneur neatly fits onto one CD and has become something of a staple of the organ catalogue. Once again, Ericsson's performance is one of the utmost clarity, and one has the feeling that there is nothing imposing itself between the music and its message. All of the hushed reverence is present, as well as the more turbulent stresses in Le Verbe and Les Anges. Again however, the voice of doom in the bass lines when Jésus accepte la Souffrance is more of a mildly gruff uncle, where Bate's is the voice of your most feared schoolteacher. Latry's pedal here is more that of a throaty pharmacist offering soothing lozenges than anything really threatening. Where he wins is in the final Dieu parmi nous, whose descending bass lines can really rattle your tonsillectomy scars. Bate is also good here, with plenty of atmosphere, but almost engulfed in resonance. Ericsson takes a swifter, more dramatic tempo in the opening chords, but sustains more later on. I feel the organ and the engineer's treatment of the acoustic might possibly have conjured a final nth more of atmospheric potential in the gentler sections, but what you do get is a true sense of what Messiaen actually wrote, rather than anything that the environment may or may not have dictated.

The pacing of another of Messiaen's better known organ cycles Les corps glorieux is also of importance, and there is an argument against Ericsson's swifter rendition of a movement such as Les Eaux de la grâce. His sense of proportion over the entirety of the work is however pretty much without fault, and Latry's more languid traversal of the same movement can equally be seen as being rather self indulgent. For that matter Bate kicks in at 2:34 to Ericsson's 3:06, so who's counting. What one should always remember with the BIS set is that Hans-Ola Ericsson was able to work closely with the composer throughout, you can be sure Messiaen was more than clear as to his intentions and desires in this music. Disc four provides very clean performances of two of Messiaen's strongest pieces from the 1950s, the Messe de la Pentecôte and Livre d'Orgue, the mellow rounded tones of the Grönlund organ creating delicious colours and textures. While the extremes of contrast are not so great as with the Notre Dame organ in, say, the remarkable opening Reprises par interversion of the Livre d'Orgue then this does at least have the advantage of rendering the musical argument that much less disparate and more coherent in a number of ways. I also prefer Ericsson's relaxed way with the gestures in the second movement Pièce en trio, which Latry's rather random sounding rubato makes into more of a rocky and uneven road than it need be. The same coupling of works appears on disc one of Jennifer Bate's set, and I'm still very much enamoured of the Beauvais Cathedral's multitude of almost human vocalisations and the sense of discourse in several of the movements in the Messe de la Pentecôte. It is however only Gillian Weir who, bucking the trend set by Messiaen's own recording, plays the song of the lark in the central section of the final Sortie swiftly enough to make it sound like actual birdsong, rather than a lark stuck in congealing aspic. If I haven't mentioned Weir until now, it is only because of the unavailability of the Collins set which occupies a sizeable chunk of my box set 'shelf'. Price comparisons also make this and the Latry set less competitive than the BIS box, but if you have individual favourites among these works then Gillian Weir on the Priory label has to be a front runner. I love the boxy low pipe which belts out the low notes in the first movement of Bate's Livre d'Orgue, and this is one instance in which the acoustic significantly helps the music, showing how Messiaen explores the space and tonal relationships as they hang in the air between the notes. Bate is also infinitely preferable to Latry in the aforementioned Pièce en trio, which is a miniature masterpiece - but in which a few important inflections are again rather covered by that washy resonance. It is also interesting to hear how each player 'hears' the various birds in the magical Chants d'oiseaux fourth movement - vive la difference, ici. 

By now you may be gaining an impression of the comparative status each of these three sets has acquired in my opinion. While I admit to a sentimental attachment to Jenifer Bate's remarkable cycle and love its sheer sense of drama and atmosphere, there is a problem with the vastness of the acoustic out of which the organ looms, and much of the detail in Messiaen's writing can be as good as lost. Olivier Latry looked like being a panacea to all of these problems in a set which presents a remarkable if rather idealistic recording of the Notre Dame instrument. I always have a niggling feeling with this set however, and that is that the engineers and performer are adding just a little too much of themselves to the music. I have listened to it often, trying hard to love it as much as I'd expected to, but I have never really warmed to Latry's playing or the up-front representation of the Paris organ. This is where Hans-Ola Ericsson and BIS win over both, for while his modern instrument might offer less of the drama and extremes of palette as the French instruments, the recording provides us with all of the amazing content of Messiaen's scores, and Ericsson is an ideal guide through each piece, imposing little in the way of 'interpretation' and allowing us closer to Messiaen's vision as a result.

The magnificent Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité is another one of those cycles which fits perfectly on a single CD, and I have nothing but superlatives for Ericsson's playing here. He does take a fair bit longer than Latry over the whole cycle, but is almost identical to the second in comparison with Bate. Where Jennifer Bate beats all comers is in the huge . Here she moves to Messiaen's own instrument, that in the Church of Saint-Trinité in Paris, and with the composer on hand to provide his own uniquely poetic guidance to the player. This was also the case with Ericsson, but the atmosphere of the Saint-Trinité organ, that fact that this was at the time of the work's premiere, and the sheer synergy between composer, instrument and location makes this one of the all time great organ recordings. Hans-Ola Ericsson is very good of course, and I don't want to take anything away from his achievement - it's just that the milder, less overtly contrasting colours of the Grönlund organ don't draw me in and carry me through in quite the same all-embracing and involving way that happens with Bate. I used to have the Saint-Trinité recording on the double cassette release, and wore the things out in the end. People would phone me up and hear the same music in the background, days or weeks apart. 'It's a very long piece' I would reply.

The final disc on Ericsson's set adds the three posthumous works: Monodie, Offrande au Saint Sacrement and Prélude Recorded on another even newer instrument, the tone of these and the earlier recordings is not shockingly different, although the more effulgent Katharinenkirche acoustic does kick in with an abundant contribution in the louder passages. In fact, these pieces slip into the set with remarkable ease. None of the works are a make or break when it comes to choosing your ultimate Messiaen cycle, but each has its worth, and the early Prélude which finishes the set has clear technical and musical links to Messiaen's teacher Marcel Dupré. The addition of the recorded birdsong was always a nice touch in this set, and I'm very glad to see its return here.

So, to conclude: yes, buy this set. We're extremely fortunate to have it released in such an economically viable package, and with all its bounteous extras intact. My personal view is that there is no such thing as a perfect cycle of recordings of the organ works of Olivier Messiaen, and so if you are anything like me, you will end up with far too many boxes parked far too close to more multiple boxes of Mahler symphonies for comfort when it comes to domestic arguments in support of frugal living against the essential need for culture and fine music. I'm far too attached to my set with Jennifer Bate to consider relinquishing it, but would suggest that, with both sets together coming in at about the price of the Olivier Latry box on its own you could do worse than have both. Bate wins in terms of sheer atmosphere and authentic French organ colour - the kind which belches garlic roughness and incense-aromatic arrogance, as well as terrifying and infinite realms of beauty and mystery. Indeed, no-one should be without her Livre du Saint Sacrement. The Unicorn-Kanchana/Regis recordings do however suffer from an overdose of resonance almost entirely throughout, and if you want the clarity of Messiaen's music less encumbered by this problem then the BIS box is a must. I have always admired this set and, comparing it to Olivier Latry's recordings, now know a bit more about why this should be the case. The Deutsche Grammophon cycle does represent something of a technical milestone in this repertoire and Olivier Latry's performances are a remarkable achievement, but the results can be somewhat unremitting and somehow impersonal; even synthetic, if one is prepared to express an extreme view. These are recordings with which you can demonstrate your Hi-Fi and impress your friends, but this is not what Messiaen's organ music is really about.

Hans-Ola Ericsson understands both the complexity as well as the simplicity of Messiaen, without over-blowing his grander gestures or filling his thinner textures with all kinds of unnecessary extra inflection and interpretative licence. Messiaen's organ scores are clear, but often present fields of notes without a bar line in sight. This can be seen as an invitation to mould and shape, pull and stretch, but in the end it's like the original version of Debussy's simple ditty for flute Syrinx - all the information is there in the notes. Duration, intensity, rhythm, phrasing: you don't need much more than common sense, and an absolute control of your instrument and a deep knowledge, sympathy and understanding of the idiom which the composer inhabits. All of these Hans-Ola Ericsson has, and this makes his set one of the most consistently rewarding ever made.


-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International