Olivier Messiaen: Visions de l'Amen
Steven Osborne piano I
Martin Roscoe piano II
60'41 | Hyperion Records CDA67366
RECORD(S) OF THE YEAR 2004
— The Sunday Times
This performance gets the balance between the blistering, ecstatic intensity and the static moments of contemplation exactly right, presenting all the rhythmic and harmonic layers with perfect clarity, while Osborne's accounts of the three earlier solo pieces are a real bonus
— The Guardian
Roscoe's piano handles most of the thematic material and the piano's lower reaches; Osborne supplies the iridescent details. Clarity and rhythmic precision cannot be faulted
— The Times
These pianists have a marvellous accord in Messiaen's amazing, clangorous, rapturous, visionary jamboree. Only a pile-up of adjectives, to which should be added coruscating and addictively dithyrambic, could do justice
— The Sunday Times
Played with an ear-tweaking sensitivity and gripping sense of theatre. Exceptionally fine sound, and exemplary notes from Nigel Simeone, complete an outstanding release
— Classic FM Magazine
There is much to savour in Osborne and Roscoe's performance, captured in typically superlative Hyperion sound
— BBC Music Magazine
The precision and muscular virtuosity of Osborne's and Roscoe's playing is exactly what breathes life into the explicitly 'visionary' character of the work… The performance is lucid in conception and illuminating in its realization. Never laboured, it's marked throughout by a sense of ease, as well as by a sure sense of structure, of rhythmic detail, and of the diverse function and significance of each of the many layers in its complex 'mix'
— International Record Review
The playing of these two wonderful pianists is flawlessly gauged and concentrated, with Osborne's high-speed, lucid playing in the finale, as it shifts into overdrive in its final section, out of this world
— The Herald
Osborne and Roscoe play with dazzling splendour
— Manchester Evening News
Tracklisting
Visions de l’Amen for two pianos
Amen de la création
Amen des étoiles, de la planète à l’anneau
Amen de l’agonie de Jésus
Amen du désir
Amen des anges, des saints, du chant des oiseaux
Amen du jugement
Amen de la consommation
Pièce pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas for solo piano
Rondeau for solo piano
Fantaisie burlesque for solo piano