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May 21, 2010
Yvonne Loriod 1924 – 2010
This is a tribute to the pianist Yvonne Loriod, who died this Monday.PART ONE contains three selections from CDs that are still (more or less) available. The 1967 performance of Berg's Piano Sonata is in great sound. At a swift tempo, with little or no dawdling over phrases, this is about as un-'Bergian' as it gets. Replace languid and opiated white nights with the brilliance of an early summer morning and the 'reveil des oiseaux' just about to begin. This is from volume two of the Domaine Musical retrospective on Accord. (Ms. Loriod's contribution to the Schoenberg 'Suite' Op 29, also in this box, is equally memorable.)
Next up is Pierre Boulez's 'Structures, Livre II'. This piece was written as a contribution to the Boulez/Loriod piano duo repertoire – they did a lot of concertizing in the late '50s and early 60s. The performance (unfortunately in mono) is from the 1961 Donaueschinger Musiktagen. It is available on a Col Legno CD of historic Boulez recordings (also included on the disc are the only recordings of the later-disowned 'Polyphonie X' and 'Poésie pour pouvoir', as well as the 1959 premiere of what would become the final movement of 'Pli selon pli'.)
The third selection is one of my favorite pieces by Ms. Loriod's husband, Olivier Messiaen. 'Concert a quatre' (1990 – 91) was left unfinished at the time of the composer's death. Ms. Loriod finished the second and fourth movements in consultation with her husband's student George Benjamin. This is the premiere recording, from a Deutsche Grammophon CD, performed by the dedicatees of the piece: Catherine Cantin (flute), Heinz Holliger (oboe), Yvonne Loriod (piano) and Mstislav Rostropovich (cello), with Myung-Whun Chung conducting the Orchestre de l'Opera Bastille.
PART TWO is an unprocessed needledrop from a 1968 Supraphon LP. Ms. Loriod performs Messiaen's 'Oiseaux exotiques' and 'Reveil des oiseaux' with Vaclav Neumann conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. She also plays a selection from the 'Catalogue d'oiseaux' for solo piano (number nine: 'La Bouscarle'). This is a beautifully-recorded album that wonderfully captures Yvonne Loriod's inimitable sound. And it is yet another document of the Czech Philharmonic at the height of its powers – the percussionists are amazing. The ending of 'Reveil des oiseaux' is one of Messiaen's great inspirations (and one of his most restrained.)
I hope against hope that some of my fellow bloggers have a recording of Ms. Loriod's Mozart that they are planning to post! Both parts of my own tribute are in FLAC. The links are above, in boldface.
Originally from The High Pony Tail, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on May 21, 2010 at 11:10 PM