Pianos, birdsong, timetables and plugs
May. 19th, 2010 09:59 pmNo doubt living with Messiaen, as with most geniuses, had its ups and downs, though the downs seem to have been very few. An unpublished letter of Darius Milhaud, written from Aspen, Colorado, says: "Les Messiaen sont ici. Comme toujours, charmants et impossibles." Given that Messiaen found the real world of timetables and electric plugs hard to crack, Loriod was called upon to be manager and travel agent as well as wife and interpreter. On his bird-listening trips she would be in charge of the tape recorder and would be expected to sleep in haystacks or barns in order to be up for the dawn chorus. Her demurrers at travelling to Bryce Canyon in Utah or New Caledonia ("wouldn't Assisi do?") went for nothing; although when it came to it, they both enjoyed these exotic trips enormously.
And from YouTube, a delightful little video of Messiaen enthusiastically demonstrating some fragments of birdsong with Loriod playing transcriptions on the piano:
Just wonderful.
Sunday Morning Music Matters
Mar. 7th, 2010 12:01 pmBut on the minus side, the death of the incomparable Philip Langridge; a man of great range and versatility, able to sing Handel just as dazzlingly as Schoenberg. Here's Langridge on combining emotion and vocal brilliance in Comfort Ye and Every Valley the opening tenor recit and air from Messiah:
A sad loss.
Another sudden loss
Mar. 11th, 2009 08:44 pmMy God.
Richard Hickox
Nov. 24th, 2008 07:06 pmTruly sad news.
Peter Coke reads his last
Sep. 11th, 2008 08:41 pmWhat I particularly like about Coke's performances is the way he brings out Temple's essential prickliness as a character. On the one hand, Paul is extremely generous and frequent jumps in with offers to help people, but on the other he can be irritable and difficult, petulant even, and Coke manages to put it all across with nothing more than a few strategically placed pauses. The way he answers the phone — a slight hesitation, an abrupt and standoffish hello, followed by either enthusiasm or coldness — is a perpetual delight. What I wouldn't give to be able to answer the phone like that!