Since no one has started a thread on this yet I thought I'd jump in. It was the first time I had heard La Transfiguration (perhaps this should be on the embarrassing confessions thread) so the whole thing was new territory. Very, very taken with it. Glorious stuff: Messiaen humble in the face of what he was attempting to express but wonderfully confident in the technical use of the language he had developed to do so. I've no idea how the performance compared with others but it sounded pretty fine to me. What did others think?

Absolutely glorious.  I don't think I would have appreciated it on the radio or as a recording, but actually being there...

I could have  been at the front, but I thought that that this wide screen stuff, so it was better at mid point in the hall.  I wouldn't have seen how many percussionists there were.

I was worried my persistent cough would be a menace, but I remained silent and presumably wrapt thoughout Part 1.  I was struggling with a cough through section 9 (Perfectae conscius illius perfectae generationis) and missed that.  Nearby friends kindly told me that it did not disturb them.

Tinners has been having major internet connection problems of almost Mort-like proportions, so we must wait on his access to an internet cafe for his opinion.

I gathered he was fairly enthusiastic.

Watched the whole thing on BBC4. Particularly impressed by the pianist (Gerard Bouwhuis) and the conductor (Thierry Fischer). As with other later Messiaen works,  I do tire of the birdsong pretty quickly as well as the particular sort of close-position scrunchy dissonant chords which are an irritating resonance on piano though more welcome on sustained wind. Final chorale was impressive.

My suspicion was that the pauses (the second one, at any rate, which didn't seem to be in a logical place musically) were BECAUSE of the commentary, rather than the other way around.  It was really quite annoying because everybody in the hall - performers and audience alike - was keeping as quiet as between the other movements, and (certainly from where I was standing) the chattering from the BBC booth was very audible and a bit of a mood-breaker 

Thanks to the Orthodox Church of America:



David - I'm sorry to have missed you - I hope to meet you some time over the summer.  Interested to hear anyone still wears DJs at concerts nowadays.

What Tom Service said was that the pauses were to give the chorus time to take a breather and recover on such a hot night in South Ken. As it was said on the BBC it must have been true.

The bit of commentary between the two 'septenaries' was just about OK I suppose but I really could have done without the second bit mid-transfiguration. Silence would have been fine, thanks. I was in no danger of switching channels if that was what they were worried about. 

But yes, hear hear. Brilliant audience. Thank you! I was beginning to wonder if there was anyone there.   

Well I was in the group on the steps with Ruth, in fact when you first walked past and tried to attract her attention, I was thinking, "now why does that chpa look familiar?"

If you happen along to the Glyndebourne prom on Thursday, you will see a number of prommers indulging in the harmless tradition of dressing a la Glyndebourne.

Thanks Ruth, I will look out for you people!!