Barbara Hannigan’s latest recording project is a CD of Messiaen’s vocal music with pianist Bertrand Chamayou.  It’s very much an equal pasrtnership with spme superb musicianship on display.  It starts off with two cycles written for/inspired by Messiaen’s first wife.  Chants de Terre et de Ciel celebrates the marriage and the birth of their young son.  There’s some very dramatic singing here but what really stood out for me was Hannigan’s ability to float a note with perfect control and apparent ease.  It works beautifully with the more delicate parts of the piano part.

The second set is the rather better known Poèmes pour MI.  These are rather more lyrical and less dramatic songs (and heavily infused with Messiaen’s particular brand of Catholic mysticism) which really allows Hannigan and Chamayou to create a sort of “liquid” sound.  Music and text flows in a really smooth way.  Most of the time anyway.  Where it makes dramatic sense the mood can be and is altered.  In “Épouvante”, for example, an almost anguished vocalise is followed by a drop into something almost speechlike.  It’s jarring but effective and feels right.

The final track is the nine minute “scena” La mort du nombre.  It’s a dialogue between a “suffering soul”, sung here by tenor Charles Sy, and a more consolatory soul sung by Hannigan.  For me there’s more than a touch of Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy here!  Sy has just the right amount of dramatic intensity and contrasts with the second soul’s more measured music.  It’s been a while since I heard Charles sing and he’s sounding really good here.  Violin (Vilde Frang) joins the piano for the instrumental component and adds an extra texture that ranges from meditative to ecstatic.  This is Messiaen at his most distinctive rather like the Quartet for the End of Time.  It’s a great addition to the record.

The recording was made at Muziekcentrum van de Omroep in 2021 and 2022 and it’s superb.  I listened to hi-resolution digital (48kHz/24bit) and it’s really detailed.  You can here the sound of this piano; not just any piano!  The voices are also captured superbly.  The booklet contains texts and bios and a very insightful essay by Hannigan on how and why this project came to be.

The album is due for release on May 24th as a physical CD and digitally in MP3 and CD quality and 96kHz/24 bit FLAC.  It’s definitely worth going for the hi-res here.

Catalogue information: Alpha Records ALPHA 1033