Messiaen Trois Mélodies; Harawi
An impressive debut for a soprano who lets Messiaen’s music do the talking
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Olivier Messiaen
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Naxos
Magazine Review Date: 5/2010
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: 8 572189

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(3) Mélodies |
Olivier Messiaen, Composer
Hetna Regitze Bruun, Soprano Kristoffer Nyholm Hyldig, Piano Olivier Messiaen, Composer |
Harawi |
Olivier Messiaen, Composer
Hetna Regitze Bruun, Soprano Kristoffer Nyholm Hyldig, Piano Olivier Messiaen, Composer |
Author: Peter Quantrill
Youthfulness is also a rare asset – this is her first recording – in a cycle that goes to appropriate extremes to portray the longing for extinction over the unbearable pain of a love beyond distraction. “I think I really prefer things which make me afraid,” once said the boy Olivier to his mother, and a strong sense of that fascination/repulsion is evident in the whirling nightmare of No 6, “Repetition planetaire”, but also in the long fortissimo lines of No 7, “Adieu”, and the cycle’s true final song, No 12, which Bruun wisely takes as fast as breath allows rather than as the metronome dictates, before she shows, in the cycle’s fading memories of love, that she can sing quietly, too. Messiaen’s lines expose the occasional lack of agility in a large voice but she compensates for this with excellent French that allows the music to do the talking, as Messiaen himself does in a piece written at a most painful time in his life.
Naxos’s recording equally reveals that Kristoffer Hyldig is a fine new Messiaen pianist. Only the lack of texts, let alone translations, prevents the warmest of recommendations.
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.

Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.