The editor and co-producer of this disc, Malcolm Ball, gives his opinion that, despite ‘the rather lo-fi’ of the 1949 technology, for ‘sheer fire and enthusiasm’ this recording of Visions de l’Amen is unparalleled, even by the same artists’ later version of 1962 on Accord. Inevitably, opinions will differ over the extent to which lo-fi can mask fire and enthusiasm, or simply outweigh them. Sadly, I have to say that, for me, the Visions in this thin, boxy sound, with climaxes losing harmonic definition and many of the quietest, highest notes of ‘Piano I’ inaudible, are little more than a travesty of their true selves. I can see only one reason, of historical primacy, not to prefer the 1962 recording where everything can be heard, including the vital distinctions between accented and unaccented notes, where tempi have ever so slightly relaxed (to the music’s benefit, in my view), and where the recording quality brings out the distinctive sonorities of the two pianos – the compositional basis of the whole cycle.

Messiaen’s 1951 recording of the Quatre études de rythme is a quite different matter. This, too, is a historic document since, as Ball says, it includes the recording of ‘Mode de valeurs’ that fired up Stockhausen, Boulez and others at the Darmstadt Festival, thereby earning itself the reputation of ‘Most Important Piano Piece of the mid-20th Century’, even if Messiaen himself later came to have no very high opinion of it. Whether or not recording technology had made significant strides in a mere two years, not only is the load imposed by the composer at a single piano entirely acceptable, but all four studies provide real musical experiences. Messiaen takes ‘Mode de valeurs’ quite fast (faster than Peter Hill – who studied his piano music with him a good deal later; so maybe the composer’s disenchantment with the piece took the form of wanting it slower?), but what struck me particularly was what I can only call the ‘intellectualised brutality’ he demonstrates in the two ‘Ile de feu’ pieces, which reminded me rather of Debussy’s description of Le sacre du printemps as ‘primitive with all modern conveniences’. Chilling, but fascinating. Messiaen also brings out all the poetry in ‘Neumes rythmiques’, a hauntingly beautiful piece that entirely belies its unappealing title.