The best
James Elkins | Chicago, IL USA | 09/02/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I am not the first to say that Hill's performance is the best for this work, but I thought I'd add my voice to the chorus. Other performances come from different pianistic traditions, it's true, but another way to look at them is as subsets of Hill's performance. Messiaen's work involving birdsong resuires a special mix of mimetic or performative gestures (those intended to paint sonorous pictures of the various landscapes and animals) and mathematical precision (to reflect Messiaen's outlandishly complicated but unquantified system of transcription). Shying away from either impoverishes the music."