Gramophone Editor's Choices - July 2022

Bertrand Chamayou (piano)

Cheung, A: Live Ear Emission ! - hommage à Olivier Messiaen
Takemitsu: Ame no ki sobyo II (Rain Tree Sketch II), 'In memoriam Olivier Messiaen'
Murail: Cloches d'adieu, et un sourire
Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jésus
Kurtág: Humble regard sur Olivier Messiaen
Harvey, J: Tombeau de Messiaen

Composed in a flash of inspiration, Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus is a veritable 20th-century landmark, a giant fresco, an odyssey. Messiaen draws on the full wealth of his musical language, from plainchant to Hindu and Greek rhythms to birdsong. At once universal and self-evident, the work seems imbued with a certain truth.