Reviews

CD review: Honey from the loudspeakers

15.10.2007

[...] “May St.Cecilia be praised that the recording of choral music by Olivier Messiaen, Jean Yves Daniel-Lesur and André Jolivet has been released. Because the programme is clever, with works by the three kindred spirits who in 1936 joined La Jeune France, the composers’ club which spoke out in favour of spirituality and against the neoclassicism of Stravinsky. And it’s a fine performance, in which the conductor Tõnu Kaljuste elevates the art of moulding voices to great heights. [...]
Joyous, Taizé-like choral singing with a gold leaf motif of plainchant alternates with sprechgesang which evokes diffuse street noise. And of course Kaljuste is lucky to have Håkon Austbø, the pianist so admired by Messiaen himself, who skips lightly and with the utmost precision over the keys. Daniel-Lesur was less self-willed than Messiaen. Perhaps that’s why Le cantique des cantiques flows from the speakers like honey.” [...]

Guido van Oorschot, Volkskrant, 11 October 2007