Soloists of the Philarmonia Orchestra
James Clark, Philippe Honoré, Rachel Roberts,
David Cohen, Kenneth Smith, Barnaby Robson
International Record Review, July/ August 2008
New recordings of the Messiaen Quartet keep coming, with these two new arrivals following the two from Harmonia Mundi and Linn last month. Messiaen’s works in general are perhaps underrepresented among new releases in this centenary year (although I continue to hope that some of 2008’s many Messiaen performances might make their way into the catalogue). On the other hand, the Quatuor pour la fin du Temps, if anything, courts the danger of being overrepresented – and perhaps already did before the celebrations commenced! – so to make a genuine impact in the discography a new release needs to offer something very special indeed.
Matthew Schellhorn and soloists of the Philharmonia orchestra offer a fine, solid ensemble performance. The music for the full quartet is very well done indeed and the performance is technically assured throughout. Signum has provided a clear recorded sound, but unfortunately one without much atmosphere.
The ‘Liturgie’ and ‘Vocalise’ receive relatively brisk performances, appropriately light in touch. I imagine a rather different result from Messiaen’s vibrato request on the cello harmonics in the ‘Liturgie’: they come across as rather tremulous here. (Messiaen’s request to the cellist for short glissandi seems to have gone unheeded: some of them here take up an entire crotchet beat.) The ‘Abîme des oiseaux’ suffers markedly from the dry sound : the long phrases lose the necessary mystery and the echo effects do not really come off. The famous crescendos are fine ; on the other hand the faster music does not really take wing, so to speak. The ‘Louange à l’éternité de Jésus’ receives a relatively quick reading at 7’26”. It is luxuriantly expressive as well – the tempo helps David Cohen bring plenty of expressive direction, although it is perhaps a rather Romantic kind of expression. I certainly wished for more space both at the ppp subito after the climax and at the very close (which is robbed of much of its magic by the recording).
The ‘Danse de la fureur’, on the other hand, is very fine indeed. The players privilege phrasing over clinical precision in the rhythms and take a thrillingly urgent tempo in the accelerations Messiaen demands. Commendably, they don’t slow down for the pp lointain – on the other hand, thanks yet again to the recorded sound, it’s rather less lointain than it should be. The strings play the climax without vibrato – the effect is powerful and chilling. The cello glissandi are misread in the ‘Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel’, with the upper notes played an octave lower than they should be. It might seem a small quibble but it does rob the recurring ‘rainbow’ gestures of their full sweep and there is no excuse for it – Messiaen even went so far as to specify verbally in the score that the octave he wrote was the one he meant. Otherwise the movement succeeds well. The ‘Louange à l’immortalité de Jésus’ has some extravagant slides from the violinist; tone and pitch are only just in control at the climax and the line doesn’t fully unfold. Often the longer note in the repeated-chord accompaniment figure is barely audible. There is also a very strange metrical irregularity at 2’36”: whether it stems from the performer or the engineer is immaterial for the listener.
The fillers include the relatively obscure Fantaisie for violin and piano: Messiaen fans will enjoy a double-take at hearing the most famous melody from L’Ascension pounded out in octaves at the beginning. There is even a première recording, even if not such an important one, Morceau de lecture à vue, a sight-reading piece composed for the École Normale de Musique in 1934 (readers of the Peter Hill/Nigel Simeone Messiaen biography will find the score on page 50). However, I can’t imagine anyone choosing his or her preferred recording of the Quatuor pour la fin du Temps on the basis of the fillers.
Chandos’s sound for the Gould Trio and Robert Plane is likewise drier than the ideal but it is at least a little more atmospheric and the performance a far more sensitive one. The strings are relatively delicate compared with the forthright approach adopted by the Philharmonia players; Robert Plane’s sound has a very English hollowness, effective in the solo ‘Abîme des oiseaux’, but a little less so in some of the tutti movements.
The ‘Liturgie de cristal’ and the ‘Intermède’ are perhaps a bit laboured (the long cello glissando at the end of the latter also does not quite reach the required destination); the ‘Vocalise’ succeeds better, the strings daring a non-vibrato beginning to their long sustained melody. In the ‘Abîme des oiseaux’ Plane brings far more of the required bleakness than Barnaby Robson on the Signum recording to the long désolé melody, as well as rather more spontaneity all round (and a real echo effect for the écho passages) – although neither really measures up to the finest of their predecessors, Deplus, Deinzer and Wolfgang Meyer in particular.
The ‘Louange à l’éternité de Jésus’ is here taken at a more conventional tempo, lasting about nine minutes. The cello line is attractively floated; this is a fragile, earthly vision rather than an other-worldly one. The sound works against a fine performance, depriving both the climax and the ending of much of their potential effect. The ‘Danse de la fureur’ receives a fine, well thought-out performance; it is again let down by the recording, which among other things makes the cello vibrato in the long low notes uncomfortably obtrusive. There are one or two small slips along the way; in particular the pianist’s fingers do not have complete success restricting themselves in the long trill to Messiaen’s specified Gs and As, which somewhat undermines the following climax.
The ‘Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel’ is much better (and the cello glissandi this time reach the correct octave). The ‘Louange à l’immortalité de Jésus’ is again a much more delicate reading than the Philharmonia soloist provides. In fact, this is beautifully tender, and for me by far the finest thing on either release: the fragile flautando playing is very effective indeed and the tempo is wonderfully poised. Still, it’s hard to imagine either performance as a whole making an enduring impression in a crowded discography.
The recordings listed in the comparisons led by Kontarsky, Loriod, Petit and Messiaen himself provide just a hint of the range of experiences available for the listener in this much-recorded masterpiece. Those who already have them will probably find much in the new versions wanting; those who do not should probably call there first.
