Messiaen Visions de l'Amen: Michel Béroff & Marie-Josèphe Jude
This is a timely release on the La Scala label, given the release of Michel Béroff's compete Erato recordings over 41 discs on Warner; this Visions de l'Amen La Scala disc was made available on September 26, 2025 in the UK.
Here we have.a performance with Marie-Josèphe Jude of the magnificent Visions de l'Amen. Maire-Josèphe Jude was a student of the great Aldo Ciccolini; she is less well-known in the UK than Béroff, and yet the two really are equals here. See both her Wikipedia and Miraere entries by clicking the links.
The opening "Amen de l Création" unfolds slowly, inevitably, monumentally. Chord sequences circle above a lower chorale. The disjunctions between the two parts are expertly managed:
The more mobile "Amen des étoiles, de la planète d'anneau" is full of power.
The "Amen de l'agonic de Jésus" is more splintered; listen to how carefully Béroff and Jude observe Messiaen's terraced dynamics, allowing the lines to speak perfectly in the midrange, with the treble encrustations as delicate as can be. Contrasts play a huge part later, as does silence, beautifully honoured here with no sense of rushing:
The chords of "Amen du désire" are truly ecstatic; heard on the piano, their power appears unadorned. True pianissimi only heighten the sense of spiritual wonder. The pace to he climax is perfect, as is Béroff and Jude's sense of gesture. A truly apocalyptic account:
The high reverence, at a dynamic level around piano, and its stillness, offers a pool of meditation in "Amen des Anges, des Saints, du chant des oiseaux": Messiaen's beloved birds (angelic messengers) are mentioned specifically here. Rhythmically vital late on, this is a contained tone-poem of sound in seven minutes:
:Messiaen's Judgement of God is swift: a mere 2"55, full of petition-like upper-range chords against scrunchy lower-range clusters in any riposte:
The finale is the truly climactic: "Amen de la Consommation," and again is that sense of growth that Béroff and Jude create that enables the performance's success There's also a retrained peal of bells the seems to want to explode in joy:
Over on Warner, full four CDs are of Messiaen by Bérodd as part of the fabulous boxed set: a fabulous account of the Huit Préludes, sensitive as can be, and the vital Quatre Études de Rhythme (both 1979 recordings for Paris' Salle Wagram). Hee's the first of the Quatre Études, "Ïle de feu I", which has links to Visions de l'Amen but takes th Modenism just a touch forward:
Then there's the Quatuor pour le fin du temps, in which Béroff is joined by a fabulous team: Erich Gruenberg, violin; Gervase de Peyer, clarinet; and William Pleeth, cello. The sense of concentration nd chamber-music resonance between plays is palpable throughout. A strange experience listening to this, as the last time I heard this piece live was with the London Sinfonietta in Beijing's Forbidden City. Here's the fist movement, "Liturgie de crystal" (the covers you're seeing on these YouTube excepts are replicated in the Warner box, incidentally). This recoding is Abbey Road, London, in 1968:
Finally, the Vingt Régards sur l'Enfant Jésus, a piece some of us consider Messien's masterpiece (although Saint François is pretty unforgeable!). We're back to Salle Wagram for this, in 1978. Here's the beautiful No. 15, "Le baiser de l'Enfant Jésus," interesting in Béroff's reading not just for its sense of inevitable unfolding but also for how he highlights Messiaen's debt to the French Impessionism in his piece. Note the cover for this YouTube is the of.reissue; the riginal is reproduced in the Warner set:
The original cover:
This disc of Visions de l'Amen is available at - note - amazon,fr - here and at amazon.co,uk rather expensively, it can also be purchased from Presto music here. The Béroff/Warner box is avialable for amazon.co..uk here.
Incidentally, Aldo Ciccolini was mentioned above, and we have a large box set of him in the queue, too, so watch this space! There is much terrific music making there, too, including some stunning Satie.
Below, streaming of the Préludes/Etudes disc:
