Oliver Knussen - Marching to Carcassone / When Adam Fell - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The French composer Olivier Messiaen was one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He prepared the way for surrealism in the 1950s and opened up musical language to non-European influences extending far beyond Debussy. Messiaen even used birdsong in order to create music of 'fairy-like splendor.' Susanne Kessel combines piano compositions of Messiaen with American composer Leon Milo's Soundscapes on this CD. As in a kind of audio-book, Messiaen's piano works and real sounds from his life are combined in Leon Milo's Soundscapes to form impressive sound collages. They allow a rapprochement with the Messiaen phenomenon that is as sensual as it is true-to-life, without in any way detracting from his mystery.

In my music I am looking for the traces of beauty and depth of expression that radiate from the tone constellations. This is nothing new, but always a wonderful challenge.An aesthetic of prohibitions is as alien to me as an indiscriminate deployment of stylistic means. Every composition has it's determination and derives from this it's contours, the sequence of harmonic colours, the nature of the melodic and formal configuration. The so-called material is set in motion by the initial idea, the inspiration, ultimately flowing into the interplay of it's own momentum and control This is the most exciting stage of the composer's work.When the material is consistent and the ear, as the highest authority, has made it's judgement on the sequence of sounds, then, perhaps, the magic of an art that can speak emerges, where memory and imagination are fused into a work. Thomas Daniel Schlee

Messiaen / Andrews - Olivier Messiaen Livre d'Orgue and Individual Works [COMPACT DISCS] date 11/11/2016