Ciro Longobardi - Messiaen: Complete Piano Works (2026) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: I. Regard du père
02. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: II. Regard de l'étoile
03. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: III. L'échange
04. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: IV. Regard de la vierge
05. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: V. Regard du fils sur le fils
06. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: VI. Par lui tout a été fait
07. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: VII. Regard de la croix
08. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: VIII. Regard des hauteurs
09. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: IX. Regard du temps
10. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: X. Regard de l'esprit de joie
11. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: XI. Première communion de la vierge
12. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: XII. La parole toute-puissante
13. Vingt egards sur l'enfant-Jésus: XIII. Noël
14. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: XIV. Regard des anges
15. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: XV. Le baiser de l'enfant-Jésus
16. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: XVI. Regard des prophètes, des bergers et des mages
17. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: XVII. Regard du silence
18. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: XVIII. Regard de l'onction terrible
19. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: XIX. Je dors, mais mon coeur veille
20. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus: XX. Regard de l'eglise d'amour
21. Petites esquisses d'oiseaux: I. Le rouge-gorge
22. Petites esquisses d'oiseaux: II. Le merle noir
23. Petites esquisses d'oiseaux: III. Le rouge-gorge
24. Petites esquisses d'oiseaux: IV. La rive musicienne
25. Petites esquisses d'oiseaux: V. Le rouge-gorge
26. Petites esquisses d'oiseaux: VI. L'Alouette des champs
27. Catalogue d'oiseaux: I. Le chocard des alpes
28. Catalogue d'oiseaux: II. Le loriot
29. Catalogue d'oiseaux: III. Le merle bleu
30. Catalogue d'oiseaux: IV. Le traquet stapazin
31. Catalogue d'oiseaux: V. La chouette hulotte
32. Catalogue d'oiseaux: VI. L'alouette Lulu
33. Catalogue d'oiseaux: VII. La rousserolle effarvatte
34. Catalogue d'oiseaux: VIII. L'alouette calandrelle
35. Catalogue d'oiseaux: IX. La bouscarle
36. Catalogue d'oiseaux: X. Le merle de roche
37. Catalogue d'oiseaux: XI. La buse variable
38. Catalogue d'oiseaux: XII. Le traquet rieur
39. Catalogue d'oiseaux: XIII. Le courlis cendré
40. 8 Préludes: I. La Colombe
41. 8 Préludes: II. Chant D'extase Dans Un Paysage Triste
42. 8 Préludes: III. Le Nombre Léger
43. 8 Préludes: IV. Instants Défunts
44. 8 Préludes: V. Les Sons Impalpables Du Rêve...
45. 8 Préludes: Vi. Cloches D'angoisse Et Larmes D'adieu
46. 8 Préludes: VII. Plainte Calme
47. 8 Préludes: VIII. Un Reflet Dans Le Vent...
48. Fantaisie Burlesque
49. Pièce Pour Le Tombeau De Paul Dukas
50. Rondeau
51. Cantéyodjayâ
52. 4 Études De Rythme: I. Île De Feu I
53. 4 Études De Rythme: II. Mode De Valeurs Et D'intensités
54. 4 Études De Rythme: III. Neumes Rythmiques
55. 4 Études De Rythme: IV. Île De Feu II
56. La Fauvette Des Jardins

‘A lush, intricate success – meaningful for Messiaen enthusiasts and enjoyable for those new to his work. I highly recommend it.’ This review from Fanfare magazine is one of several in the international press to have recognised the achievement of Ciro Longobardi while in the midst of recording the complete piano music of Olivier Messiaen, in a cycle which is now issued complete for the first time, and at budget price.
The piano music of Messiaen spans times and idioms ranging from the Debussyan Préludes of 1928-9, written when the composer was barely out of his teens, through to the jewel-like Petites Esquisses d’Oiseaux, from 1985 and one of his last works before his death in 1992. While every bar of the music is distinctively and instantly ‘Messiaen’, that idiom evolved a good deal over the years, and came to a kind of peak as well as a crisis in the Catalogue d’Oiseaux from the late 1950s. This 13-movement cycle is the only one of Messiaen’s major works to end in darkness and despair, with the lonely song of the warbler piercing a pitch-black Brittany seascape, accompanied only by the mournful boom of a lighthouse and the endless rolling of waves against a stony shore.
Messiaen could ‘paint’ such pictures in sound as vividly as a Debussy or a Richard Strauss before him, but he could also lift his gaze towards a heaven which was as real for him as the earth below. Hence both the all-encompassing power and tender sincerity of the Vingt Regards, composed during the depths of the Second World War, which retains enduring popularity even among musicians and audiences who are challenged either by musical complexity or by direct appeal to the emotions.
This set is thus the fruit of years of living with the music, as well as the years spent recording it. Ciro Longobardi has performed Messiaen in recital and at festivals across Europe, throughout a career spanning three decades which began with his prize-winning appearance at the International Gaudeamus Competition in Rotterdam in 1994. This important Messiaen set is accompanied by his own reflections on the music, as well as the composer’s own programme notes.

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