La Fauvette Passerinette: A Messiaen Premiere, With Birds, Landscapes & Homages Peter Hill

• Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937):
• 1 Miroirs, M. 43: No. 2 Oiseaux tristes 04:22
• Olivier Messiaen (1908 - 1992):
• 2 Huit Préludes, I/2: No. 1, La Colombe 02:19
• 3 Pièce pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas, I/6 01:58
• 4 Quatre études de rythme: No. 1, Île de feu 1 02:05
• Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 - 2007):
• 5 Klavierstück VII 06:31
• 6 Klavierstück VIII 01:59
• Julian Anderson (b. 1967):
• 7 3 Etudes for piano: Etude No. 1 00:44
• George Benjamin (b. 1960):
• 8 Three Studies for solo piano: No. 1 , Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm 12:20
• Olivier Messiaen:
• 9 Catalogue d’oiseaux I/42: No. 4, Le Traquet stapazin (Book 2) 13:55
• Henri Dutilleux (1916 - 2013):
• 10 Trois Préludes: No. 1 , D’ombre et de silence 03:48
• Peter Sculthorpe (1929 - 2014):
• 11 Night Pieces: No. 3, Stars 01:39
• Douglas Young (b. 1947):
• 12 Dreamlandscapes: Book 2, River 06:07
• Olivier Messiaen:
• 13 La Fauvette passerinette 11:00
• Tristan Murail (b. 1947):
• 14 Cloches d’adieu, et un sourire … in memoriam Olivier Messiaen 04:22
• Tōru Takemitsu (1930 - 1996):
• 15 Rain Tree Sketch II 03:41
• Olivier Messiaen:
• 16 Morceau de lecture à vue 01:57
• Total Runtime 01:18:47

Info for La Fauvette Passerinette: A Messiaen Premiere, With Birds, Landscapes & Homages

In 2012, leading pianist and Messiaen scholar Peter Hill made a remarkable discovery among the composer’s papers: several pages of tightly written manuscript from 1961, constituting a near-complete and hitherto unknown work for piano.

"A Messiaen premiere": not the sort of statement you see on many new release covers these days. For any performer or music historian, the prospect of unearthing a forgotten work by a great composer is tantalizing enough. But when that work turns out to be a significant stepping-stone – the missing link that explains the composer’s subsequent creative evolution?

Hill was able to fill in some missing dynamics and articulations by consulting Messiaen’s birdsong notebooks, and gave the work’s first public performance in the autumn of 2013.

Here, then, he follows his acclaimed Bach recordings for Delphian with a return to the music in which he first made his reputation, setting this glittering addition to Messiaen’s piano output in the context both of the composer’s own earlier work and of music by the many younger composers on whom Messiaen was a profound influence – from Stockhausen and Takemitsu to George Benjamin, who like Hill himself worked closely with the composer in the years before his death.

"Hill places the new work within an exceptionally well-crafted recital in which Messiaen's music is a recurrent thread in a span of resonances, influences and affinities...Whether in Dutilleux or Peter Sculthorpe, Murail or Takemitsu, Hill's provides a masterclass in capturing a composer's idiom with warmth and humanity." (BBC Music Magazine)

"he knows how to make a sound like bronze, like those pianists from before the first world war. There it is: you’re hooked … the depth of his sound, the kaleidoscope of attacks, the intelligence of the pedalling are unfailing." (Diapason)

"Hill's realisation forms a rewarding substantial centrepiece to this outstanding recital disc. The whole point is to put Messiaen himself in a stimulating context...The appeal of the disc is greatly enhanced by the exceptional quality of the recording, with every facet of Hill's uncompromisingly extensive expressive range vividly captured." (Gramophone Magazine)

Peter Hill, piano

Peter Hill
Hill read music at Oxford gaining a Master of Arts degree, during which time he studied piano with Cyril Smith. He then continued his piano studies at the Royal College of Music with Cyril Smith, gaining the Chappell Gold Medal. Whilst at the Royal College of Music he also studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, who described him as ‘…a born artist, a beautiful natural talent’. Hill has always been interested in contemporary music. He has said, ‘The turning point of my life came when I was about fourteen, when I discovered “real” twentieth-century music, via Schoenberg’s piano music which I came across in a shop in Winchester… What I discovered was that just playing a major seventh softly was extraordinarily beautiful and I played those pieces with a kind of missionary zeal.’ He was awarded a first prize at the International Centre for New Music in Darmstadt for his playing of Cage and Stockhausen, and was a founder member (with Douglas Young, Kathryn Lukas and Rohan de Saram) of Dreamtiger, the ensemble devoted to organising concerts of contemporary music. Hill has appeared at many international music festivals including Bath, Harrogate and Stuttgart, and since 1976 has broadcast regularly for the BBC making nearly one hundred programmes; these include the recording of the complete piano music of Schoenberg and the complete solo piano music of Messiaen. In 1992 Hill took a research fellowship at Royal Holloway College on Xenakis, but was not inspired by this composer. He has given many first performances by contemporary British composers and appears in recital with violinist Peter Cropper whilst his duo-pianist partner is Benjamin Frith.

Hill is head of the department of music at the University of Sheffield where he teaches courses in performance practice, Messiaen, Stravinsky and Beethoven. His book The Messiaen Companion, published in 1994, indicates his affinity for the French composer, a composer with whom Hill studied and of whose music he has made authoritative recordings. As well as writing articles for the Musical Times and Tempo magazine, Hill has also published a book on Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and has given extremely illuminating lectures on the history, performance and recording of this work.

Hill made his first solo recording, of piano music by Havergal Brian, in 1982. In 1990 he recorded one of the peaks of the piano repertoire with Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli’ Variations Op. 120. Like most of his discs it was favourably reviewed, and for his understanding and complete grasp of its overall structure is one of the best available versions of this monument of the piano literature. As with many of his recordings, Hill provides a penetrating and thought-provoking booklet essay.

However, Hill is predominantly known for his recordings of twentieth-century music, especially his critically praised seven-disc cycle of the piano music of Messiaen on which he received guidance from the composer. These recordings for Unicorn-Kanchana were hailed as ‘…one of the most important recording projects of recent years’ by the New York Times, putting Hill at the forefront of Messiaen interpreters; they have recently been reissued on the Regis label. His more recent discs have been made for Naxos for whom he is recording the complete works of Stravinsky. A disc which includes the Three Movements from Petrushka was highly praised, Fanfare magazine stating, ‘The work is almost impossible to play, and Hill – not noticeably taxed – bounds and prances through it with real élan.’ Of the whole disc, the critic concludes, ‘The playing is superb and highly enjoyable.’ The Gramophone magazine found Hill’s ‘…cool detachment and scrupulous observance of the notation works well in the Sonata’, but not in the whole of the programme. A disc of Stravinsky’s works for two pianos with Benjamin Frith includes the The Rite of Spring, but it was Hill’s disc of Berg, Schoenberg and Webern that elicited the highest praise from The Gramophone. ‘These are scrupulously prepared performances… Where Pollini responds with near frenetic intensity and an excess of dazzling pianism, Hill probes with subtlety, sympathy and high intelligence.’ This disc was also selected as a recording of the year in Classic CD magazine and by The Sunday Times. One of the most under-rated of British pianists, Hill deserves a place in the front rank.

This album contains no booklet.