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Bruckner: Symphony No 8 / Messiaen: Couleurs de la Cité Céleste – LSO Live

Bruckner & Messiaen

  • Release date: 11 May 2018
    LSO3042 | 822231304296

    Blu-ray + DVD | 2 disc standard Blu-ray case
    Stereo | 24bit 48kHz PCM
    Notes in English
    Total playing time: 1h 44m

    Film director: François-René Martin
    Audio producer: Nicholas Parker
    Audio engineering: Classic Sound Ltd
    Recorded Barbican Hall, London, April 2016

  • ★★★★ ‘The string sound throughout is beautifully rich, the brass magisterial.’
    Classical Music Magazine

    'Illuminating.'
    Classical Source

    'An impressive performance... The LSO strings sound wonderful, and some of the finest camera work pays them tribute visually too.'
    MusicWeb International

    Concert reviews

    ★★★★★‘Unconventional, beautifully prepared and deeply humane.’
    The Arts Desk

    ★★★★ ‘The LSO [give] their all for their new chief.’
    The Guardian

    ‘An impressive interpretation in the making.’
    Classical Source

    ‘Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s piano sparkled.’
    Bachtrack

£14.99

Sir Simon Rattle
London Symphony Orchestra 


Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO are joined by revered French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard in a concert film that brings together music by Anton Bruckner and Olivier Messiaen: two composers as united in their devotion to the Catholic faith as they are divergent in their approaches to writing music.

The programme begins with Bruckner’s monumental Eighth Symphony, with Rattle leading the London Symphony Orchestra through its 1939 edition, prepared by the Austrian musicologist Robert Haas. The composer’s last complete symphony, it has since become characterised by its explosive, dramatic nature and immense scale. Taking Bruckner over five years to compose and revise, it would only be performed three times whilst he was alive.

In stark contrast to the magnitude of Bruckner’s Eighth, Messiaen’s Couleurs de la Cité Céleste lasts just over quarter of an hour. The 20th-century work comprises sequences of short episodes and serves as a microcosm of the composer’s various preoccupations, from birdsong to the book of Revelations. Centered on the piano and performed by a reduced orchestra, Aimard takes to the stage, offering an expert rendition of Messiaen’s often overlooked work.

Composers   Bruckner, Messiaen
Conductor   Sir Simon Rattle
Soloists   Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Performers   London Symphony Orchestra

Track list

Bruckner Symphony No 8 in C minor (Haas Edition)

  1. I. Allegro moderato
  2. II. Scherzo – Allegro moderato. Trio – Langsam
  3. III. Adagio – Feierlich langsam, doch nicht schleppend
  4. IV. Finale – Feierlich, nicht schnell

Messiaen:

  1. Couleurs de la Cité Céleste

 

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