Louise Bessette - Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jésu (2000)

Musically astounding if theologically unsound, Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus can be an incredible listening experience. In 20 solo piano pieces lasting more than two and a quarter hours in a complete performance, the Vingt Regards describes 20 different views of looking at the newborn Jesus, starting with the view of God the Father and ending with the view of the Spirit of Joy. Although Messiaen's notes to the music reveal his theological idiosyncrasies -- the opening piece, for example, purports to set God's words "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," although according to Luke and Matthew, God spoke those words 30 years later after Jesus' baptism -- his excited, exalted, and exuberant music can easily overcome any objections in the right performance.
This 2000 recording by Canadian pianist Louise Bessette is clearly the right performance. Bessette, a virtuoso player of stunning strength and staggering intensity, loves the work so much that she not only performs it complete when other pianists cherry pick it for the pieces they like, she performs it complete from memory. From the simplest tonal progressions to the most extravagant displays of technique, from the severest atonal harmonies to the most blazing explosions of color, Bessette never yields to the temptation to show off but instead concentrates on the radiant spiritual qualities of the music. Although both the composer's wife Yvonne Loriod and his pupil Pierre-Laurent Aimard have made imposing recordings of the Vingt Regards, anyone who truly loves the work will in all likelihood enjoy Bessette's performance as well. Atma's digital sound is clear, close, and loud.