Les choses visibles et invisibles

[Frank Fremerey]

The JADE arrived today. I will listen to "Messse de la Pentecôte" in a second. Then sleep. Later write.

[Akira]

Frank, enjoy your CD and have a good sleep!

[Frank Fremerey]

Sound track : Messiaen, les choses visibles et invisibles (Messse de la Pentecôte : Offertoire)

Now. Playing.

Very emotional. Very intellectual too. Mussorgsky on Acid. Does not sound like something priests would choose for a sunday mass. Very different.

[Airy]

"Mussorgsky on acid" : well heard and said.

[Frank Fremerey]

"Mussorgsky on acid" : well heard and said.

9

I like Mussorgsky very much. I looked up Messianes biography. Listed are Debussy and Stravinsky as major influences esp. Debussy. 

He paints pictures in my head so kindof transfers his synestetics to me as a listener. Yet the pictures are not Sunday mass compatible, more of the Hieronymus Bosch kind of pictures. Very intense, sin at their center, doubt, hopelesness, the abbys, dirt and color, William Turner blood red skies ....

Interesting. Have to listen on one of the more sofisticated audio systems in our house...

[Akira]

I looked up Messianes biography. Listed are Debussy and Stravinsky as major influences esp. Debussy. 

Apparacion de l'Eglise Eternelle reminds me of La Cathédrale engloutie (just the title perhaps)...

[Les Olson]

Messiaen being, perhaps above all, an organist, Saint-Saens is also a very important influence.

Moussorgsky is an interesting comparison: some people have suggested that Messiaen has a strong affinity with Russian ways of feeling because of his ecstatic mysticism and lack of the urbanity and wit that is usually thought to be typical of French music (Messiaen founded a group dedicated to rejecting "frivolity" in music, and Satie in particular). 

[Akira]

If I remember correctly, Messiaen's graduation thesis was Rite of Spring by Stravinsky.

[Frank Fremerey]

If I remember correctly, Messiaen's graduation thesis was Rite of Spring by Stravinsky.

Yes there is some resemblence, yet for my ear Stravinsky is very much about the intensity of undertones while Mussorgsky does never surpress the brutality and aggression of noise up to a point of physically hurting the instrument or the listener. For me Stravinsky is more on a psychologically threatening path while Mussorgsky is more of the concrete real kind. Blood is Blood with Mussorgsky. Blood is playing tricks with my mind with Stravinsky. Love them both. Sacre de printemps gets softer the more I listen to it. Pictures of an exhibition holds its position while I develop.

Messiaen has to proove over time yet. I guess the piercing sonds and stron forte parts will hold their position over time.

[Akira]

Apparition du Messiaen.

The CD has been sealed for two decades!

I've only listened to "Les choses visibles et invisible", but was amazed by the combinations of stops Naji Hakim had chosen.

[Airy]

May pictures flourish after your listening.

[Akira]

I sincerely hope so.  Thank you again for the recommendation.

[Hugh_3170]

Akira, if you are aware of this, then I tender my most humble of apologies in advance. 

However some CDs are packaged in the factory with protective packaging next to the label which can decompose over time and attack both the label and then reflective surface of the CD (i.e. the surface just under the label) that they were originally designed to protect.  If storing valuable CDs for posterity, it might pay you to check this out.  Unfortunately it would require the package to be opened, which might lower its value to a collector/investor.  A Catch22 situation I concede.

Apparition du Messiaen.

The CD has been sealed for two decades!

I've only listened to "Les choses visibles et invisible", but was amazed by the combinations of stops Naji Hakim had chosen.

[Akira]

Akira, if you are aware of this, then I tender my most humble of apologies in advance. 

However some CDs are packaged in the factory with protective packaging next to the label which can decompose over time and attack both the label and then reflective surface of the CD (i.e. the surface just under the label) that they were originally designed to protect.  If storing valuable CDs for posterity, it might pay you to check this out.  Unfortunately it would require the package to be opened, which might lower its value to a collector/investor.  A Catch22 situation I concede.

Hugh, thanks for the advice.  I've had a few CD sets of mine using that case with the protective stuff that had been deteriorated, stuck to the CDs which were unrecoverable.  After I found this, I removed all the protective stuffs out of other cases of similar CD sets.

I learned it the hard way.  I made sure that each CDs were packed in a jewelry case separately, and no large case that would use protective stuff.  All CDs were in pristine conditions!

[Hugh_3170]

Ah - thank goodness you know about this - so many people don't.  Sorry if I have made you concerned.

Hugh, thanks for the advice.  I've had a few CD sets of mine using that case with the protective stuff that had been deteriorated, stuck to the CDs which were unrecoverable.  After I found this, I removed all the protective stuffs out of other cases of similar CD sets.

I learned it the hard way.  I made sure that each CDs were packed in a jewelry case separately, and no large case that would use protective stuff.  All CDs were in pristine conditions!