Ralph van Raat, Hakon Austbo - Olivier Messiaen: Visions de l'Amen; Claude Debussy: En blanc et noir (2012)

It was an inspired idea in 2010 for Ursula Oppens and Jerome Lowenthal to pair these two major 20th-century French two-piano works, composed in wartime, for the first time on disc. Two years later Ralph van Raat and Håkon Austbø follow suit with the same programme and the results complement their older colleagues.

Whereas close-up, vividly detailed though sometimes congested engineering characterises Oppens/Lowenthal, Van Raat/Austbø are captured at more of a distance. This allows one to accurately perceive how Messiaen deploys his extreme range of dynamics between instruments in order to clarify melodic and decorative elements. The pianists themselves have a hand in that, too. One telling example can be found in the third movement, ‘Amen de l’agonie de Jésus’ where, in the Bien modéré section, the second piano’s fortissimo tune easily sings out against the first piano’s chords in the same register (left hand forte, right hand mezzo-forte). Similarly transparent balances impart a kind of animated shimmer throughout the second movement, ‘Amen des étoiles, de la planète à l’anneau’, albeit not quite matching the scherzando lightness that Steven Osborne and Martin Roscoe bring to the thick progression of chords. Van Raat and Austbø shape the first movement’s long paragraphs with a patience, sensitivity and rhythmic exactitude that slowly build to a climax. By contrast, the duo’s steady gait, careful dynamic scaling and well-balanced textures give an extra degree of dignity and gravitas to the seventh movement, which can sound lumbering and pretentious. As a result, their moderate tempo does not seem overly slow, even when measured against the far brisker Osborne/Roscoe traversal. At piano 2, Austbø has most of the tunes and he particularly shines in the fourth movement’s extended solo.

Compared to the full-throated, expressive flexibility distinguishing Oppens/Lowenthal’s En blanc et noir, Van Raat/Austbø turn in leaner, more streamlined work, with less accentuation and tempo wiggle-room than the Kontarsky brothers offered in their classic recording (DG, 10/74 – nla). At the same time, Oppens/Lowenthal tend to make more of the composer’s dynamic surges, imparting a stronger sense of idiomatic flair. In short, collectors interested in this coupling of works can’t go wrong with Van Raat/Austbø but should not ignore Oppens/Lowenthal’s virtues.

Review by Jed Distler, Gramophone

I am slowly becoming a huge Ralph van Raat fan. Starting with his superb recording of Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated, I’ve reviewed two other recordings by him that have been absolutely glorious. This is yet another, a disc containing two duo-piano works by modernist French composers writing in times of war—Debussy in 1915, Messiaen in 1943. I wonder at some of the dazzling piano runs in the first piece as being apropos to a wartime feeling, but of course Debussy was writing in general terms. It is in the second of the three pieces, a dark mood piece based on François Villon’s Ballade contre les ennemis de la France , that one hears the tolling of bells as an ominous and atonal, uncomfortable, intrusion on one’s mood, and then it runs through faster tempos in a paraphrase of A Mighty Fortress is Our God , the Lutheran hymn. Running bass passages, scalar as well as chromatic, add tension to the piece.

Messiaen also evokes bells in an uncomfortably tense manner in the opening movement of Visions de l’Amen, and they are continued in the second movement, “Amen des étoiles, de la planète à l’anneau.” Typical of Messiaen’s piano and organ works, however, the composer produces dark, congested, and, to my mind, evil-sounding music in “Amen du Désir,” but he lightens up the mood and produces an excellent piece in “Amen des anges, des saints, du chant des oiseaux” (good old Messiaen and his birdcalls!). This latter piece has some very interesting running counterpoint in one place, and the final piece, “Amen de la Consommation,” is very upbeat and positive. The liner notes indicate that the expressive elements in the piece are given to the second piano while the first plays percussive, brilliant commentary. Overall I find the suite interesting if not truly great.

What is great, however, is the playing of van Raat and his piano partner, Håkon Austbø. They sound as one, produce glowing colors and sensitively shaped lines, and make as strong a case for both works as one could hope. There are, it seems, 34 recordings of En Blanc et noir available, of which the strongest competition (with the same pairing of the Messiaen piece) comes from Ursula Oppens and Jerome Lowenthal on Çedille 119 (praised in these pages by Jeremy Marchant) and Vladimir and Vovka Ashkenazy on Decca 1312902, but this one is less expensive and, to my mind, a better buy.

Review by Lynn René Bayley, Fanfare

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 14. October 2012, 11:42

Ralph van Raat, Håkon Austbø / Messiaen - Visions de l'Amen; Debussy - En blanc et noir

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Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2018-07-04 18:17:00

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Ralph van Raat, Hakon Austbo / Messiaen - Visions de l'Amen; Debussy - En blanc et noir
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR13 -0.61 dB -21.08 dB 4:20 01-Debussy: En blanc et noir - Avec emportement
DR16 0.00 dB -23.76 dB 6:35 02-Debussy: En blanc et noir - Lent. Sombre – Sourdement tumultueux –
DR15 -2.62 dB -24.64 dB 4:25 03-Debussy: En blanc et noir - Scherzando – Poco meno mosso
DR15 -2.25 dB -24.19 dB 5:53 04-Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen - I. Amen de la Creation
DR13 0.00 dB -18.75 dB 5:37 05-Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen - II. Amen des etoiles, de la planete a l’anneau
DR14 -0.85 dB -22.05 dB 7:18 06-Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen - III. Amen de l’agonie de Jesus
DR14 -1.02 dB -21.88 dB 10:17 07-Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen - IV. Amen du Desir
DR14 -4.14 dB -23.16 dB 7:32 08-Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen - V. Amen des anges, des saints, du chant des ois…
DR15 -1.09 dB -20.22 dB 2:48 09-Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen - VI. Amen du Jugement
DR13 -1.13 dB -18.11 dB 7:54 10-Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen - VII. Amen de la Consommation
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR14

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 434 kbps
Codec: FLAC
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