United Kingdom Messiaen, Vingt régards de l’enfant-Jésus (1944): Nicolas Hodges (piano). Wigmore Corridor, London, 31.5.2024. (CC)
The final time I heard Messiaen’s huge Jesus-oriented canvas was at Milton Court docket in 2016, Pierre-Laurent Aimard was the pianist, a efficiency of actual majesty; now Nicolas Hodges enters the fray, providing a studying of astonishing breadth and heat. Like Aimard, Hodges is steeped within the music of in the present day and of the final century (his performances of Rebecca Saunders’s Piano Concerto in each Berlin and London had been distinctive – click on right here for the London assessment).
Messiaen’s masterpiece was written in 1944, through the last months of the Nazi occupation of Paris. Whereas the composer later attested to the affect of Liszt, Chopin, Albéniz, the piece speaks of pure Messiaen and of a pure expression of his religion.
The interpretative problem is to maintain the move and construction of this piece over wo hours and ten minutes, with out an interval. It was testomony to Hodges’s capacity to create an environment of the utmost focus in order that viewers noise was at a minimal all through – the ear may consider the multi-coloured sonorities emanating from the piano. The quantity of thought that went into each gesture was evident all through, proper from the superbly positioned chords of the opening Régard du Père (the ‘Theme of God’). Messiaen’s chords are luminous, and so was Hodges’s taking part in; chords which might be positioned low down registrally nonetheless had each component audible.
An necessary part of Hodges’s success was that he can current Messiaen’s music full drive with out dropping full one – the explosions of ‘Regard de l’étoile’ had been emotionally vibrant however there was no timbral forcing. One other part of Messiaen’s writing is that he can write in superimposed layers, one thing evident in ‘L’échange,’ and superbly elucidated by Hodges (we heard it once more, in probably the most delicate of phrases, in ‘Régard du Fils sur le Fils’, the place ongoing resonance of chords gained enormous emotional energy). Gesture is one other component, however in Hodges’s case gesture was by no means simply that – it was all the time a part of a larger complete.
Unapologetically stating Messiaen’s case is significant: there might be no softening of the extra violent moments. This energy was significantly efficient in ‘Régard de la Vierge’; Hodges refused to indulge within the toe-curling great thing about the opening, delicate chord sequence, as a substitute instilling a sure objectivity hat contrasted with sudden outbursts. The frenzied ’Par Lui tout a été fait’ was, in Hodges’s fingers, a virtuoso cosmic dance, stuffed with vitality and phenomenal contrasts: right here, Messiaen after a time makes use of sustained notes sounding towards a higher-pitched angular dance, to good impact. If of their recordings Aimard and Chamayou supply a purely Messiaen account, Hodges appeared to carry greater than a contact of Liszt to this expertise.
Pinpoining the contours of your entire piece total is essential; so it was that ’Régard de la Croix’ supplied some relaxation, however underlying its opening moments was an simple pressure that needed to out – and did so by way of the facility of some great bass octaves. The ‘Régard des hauteurs’ appears to shift its look in direction of the French Impressionists earlier than whizzing off into unpredictable stellar flight.
Recognized for his thrilling manner with rhythm (whether or not in Turangalîla or, maybe Cantéyodjayâ), Messiaen is equally able to creating the phantasm of exiting time itself; Hodges co-created this phantasm completely in ’Regard du temps,’ then took the thought on a stroll with the ‘Régard de l’Esprit du joie’ (the place ecstatic passages – crazily so, typically, veering in direction of Conlon Nancarrow – vie with moments of ethereal magnificence. Hodges’s efficiency of the later ‘Régard du silence’ was touched with greatness in its tendresse.
This was a efficiency, not of extremes, however one which embraced extremes. The fearsome energy of the opening of ‘Régard des prophètes, des bergers et des Mages’ and its virtually maddening single-line repetitions that adopted appeared the proper juxtaposition. The ultimate two actions, ‘Je dors, mais mon cœur veille’ and ‘Régard de l’Église d’amour’ appeared to comprise your entire piece in microcosm, from inward contemplation to exterior celebration garlanded with the pianos’ invocation of bells, gong strokes, and sheer ecstasy.
A memorable night.
Colin Clarke
