Word: messiaen
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...Krzysztof Penderecki's Polish Requiem, a work in progress for vocal quartet and chorus that promises to be a major statement, both musically and politically, when it is finished some time next year. And last week in Paris, Seiji Ozawa presided over the world premiere of Olivier Messiaen's first opera, Saint François d'Assise, which is clearly intended to crown the 75-year-old Messiaen's career...
Despite their radically different compositional styles, Penderecki, 50, and Messiaen have much in common. Both are devout Roman Catholics; their outputs have prominently featured devotional music, notably Penderecki's St. Luke Passion and his Utrenja ("The Entombment of Christ" and the "Resurrection"), and Messiaen's massive piano piece, Vingt Regards sur I'Enfant Jésus, and his work for large chorus and orchestra, La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Both men are leading composers in their countries, yet each has transcended parochial considerations to become an important international figure. Furthermore, each writes...
...religious subjects: The Devils of Loudun (1969) and Paradise Lost (1978), which the composer has called a Sacra Rappresentazione rather than a conventional opera. Paradise Lost, commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, was the victim of a turgid production that obscured the work's many beauties. Messiaen's Saint François-which resembles no other work in the operatic literature as much as it resembles Paradise Lost in its static, quasi-oratorio quality- is more fortunate all around...
Lintgen also draws the line at certain contemporary works, such as those of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. "That," says the doctor, "is not music." But he can spot such forbidding or lesser known compositions as Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie or Alan Hovhaness's Floating World "Ukiyo." "Those two were my best accomplishments," he says, "unless you count the time I recognized a recording of Beethoven's Fifth from across the room...
...viola, cello and clarinet?Tashi adds or subtracts members and friends for various pieces, which range from Schubert to contemporary Japanese Composer Toru Takemitsu. A Tashi concert is like a jam session of pros: the music sounds both spontaneous and polished. The four have recorded a superb version of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, one of the few major works written for their mix of instruments...