A pre-concert talk by David Owen Norris about Messiaen's Visions de l'Amen at Easter at King's
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6 April
A pre-concert talk by David Owen Norris about Messiaen's Visions de l'Amen at Easter at King's
No, it's not an offshoot of that rather poor t.v. programme An Audience With..., but David visiting Cambridge to give a pre-concert talk about Messiaen's Visions de l'Amen, a work for two pianos, performed shortly afterwards and nearby in the chapel at King's College, where I sat with him for the performance.
I knew that he was hugely charismatic and entertaining, quite apart from being very informative from his wealth of knowledge, because I had heard him before, talking about and around the theme of Good King Wenceslas in York a few years back as part of its Chrsimas Early Music Festival. David is also well known as a broadcaster, and I dimly remember a regular quirky little slot that he had on Radio 3 on a weekday afternoon back, I think, in the late 80s or early 90s (this link will take you where more information is available), but the opportunity didn't present itself to get the answer directly to what that was and when.
He and I happened to talk, because I was outside the venue (seeing no reason to take a seat yet), and he came out, as I gathered, to take the air. Not wishing to venture a question regarding the Messiaen, if he were, in fact, collecting his thoughts, I sought permission, and, saying that I had first heard it on a recording made by the Labèque sisters, asked about the availability of recordings, saying was it under-represented. David said that there probably around 10, and we agreed that that was probably enough, but also that, as to its appearance in recital halls, the work is not performed very often.
To be continued
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