Olivier Messiaen - Visions de l’Amen, VII

Visions de l’amen, pour deux pianos (1943) I. Amen de la création II. Amen des étoiles, de la planète à l’anneau III. Amen de l’agonie de Jésus IV. Amen du désir V. Amen des anges, des saints, du chant des oiseaux VI. Amen de jugement VII. Amen de la consommation Maarten Bon & Reinbert de Leeuw Oliver Messiaen completed Visions de l’amen, for two pianos, in 1943. The previous year he had been released from a German prison camp in Silesia, where he wrote his most famous work, Quartet for The End of Time. Having returned to Paris, he discovered his wife Claire was dying in a hospital. It was under these circumstances that he wrote many of his finest works, including Visions de l’amen. This work’s premiere took place on May 10, 1943, in Paris. Messiaen performed along with the piece’s dedicatee, Yvonne Loriod. Like most of his works, this one reconciles his devout Roman Catholicism with ecstatic visions of the cosmos and of nature. Without an orchestral palette to paint the enormous chords in different colors