Messiaen on Debussy and Colour

[marcojp94]

Monsieur Messiaen looked like a pimp.

[Carbarrawr]

2:20- synesthesia reference

[HectorAndresMayoral]

What´s the piece that young boy is playing at the beginning. I believe it´s a piece by Schumann, but the name has abandoned my tongue!

[BreuschPagan]

@HectorAndresMayoral Sounds like Kreisleriana

[HectorAndresMayoral]

@BreuschPagan Indeed it is! Thank you!

[MaestroTJS]

I'm pretty sure no one saw the same colours he did and just kind of nodded in agreement.

[jekrendel]

qui est la femme a droite?

[asemtu]

green colour is cool??

[LaBohemienne8]

Too bad they don't understand his synaesthesia. Thanks for posting though, such a precious vid!

[ArtD42]

@LaBohemienne8 I don't think it that's they "don't understand" it - Messian, after all, is sort of imposing it on them, when clearly none of them have it. (I hope nobody interprets that as some sort of attack on Messiaen.)

[Shachah223]

@ArtD42

He didn't impose it on them. He probably assumed they all saw the same things he did. Synesthetes do that sometimes. Apesthetes just don't understand. smh

[Shachah223]

@LaBohemienne8

IKR? 

[LuthienAthariel]

thank you for posting this. It is great to see Messiaen at work, and off all things, he's working with Debussy's work that I love best of all. If I am not very much mistaken, the recording that we hear is from 1941 (Desormiere) which I still find the best of all that I have heard.

[LayLink]

cool le prof

[BeauJames59]

LOL, I feel sanctified by watching and hearing this...

[The1976spirit]

Mir kommts hoch, in Farbe. Grau ist auch dabei.

Und das ist noch nichtmal die ganze Wahrheit!

[woutercapitain]

Where is this fragment taken from? Some documentary?

[floorembden]

@woutercapitain

from "Olivier Messiaen et les oiseaux", Michel Fano et Denise Tual (production Sofracima, Denise Tual et Fondation Royaumont, 1973, 80 min)

[Tengent]

1:55 What piece is that from?

[straypixel]

@Tengent Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande.

[Vortex42]

Something is happening in that room.

[crowe]

Just wow.

[capthook1]

What an amazing video, thank you for sharing and spreading the joy around with all of us! I also would have loved to at least have one lesson with Messiaen.

[Dcomp29]

amazing thank you very much!

[MclarinetN]

brilliant

[pmarq32]

Varese52-- many thanx for pointing out Michael Beroff-- one of my favorite interpreters of Messiaen's piano music.

it's wonderful how everyone stands when he enters the room. i have heard complaints that Messiaen "only" taught orchestration and was never given the title of composition professor at the Conservatoire. this video shows that it really didn't matter what label was given to what he taught.

[mrpossibilities]

Ha! I love it. Typical music class. There's always some kid playing some hip shit on the piano, showing off, until the teacher arrives and wipes all that stuff away and says "Alright! Everyone sit down so we can start class!".... even if it's a class with Messiaen, these rituals remain.

[stanchinsky]

@mrpossibilities haha so true!!

[MatthewMingLi]

What a fine teacher! Must be a fun class to be in! :D

[Varese52]

The first person one sees in this snippet is a very young Michel Beroff, a marvelous pianist and wonderful interpreter of Messiaen's music.

[dhotle]

Thank you for posting this! It's so wonderful to see and hear a master discussing music!

[vokshumana]

Sun Ra used to say to members of his band: ''Play something pink'' or ''play me an apple''.

[64ftContraBombarde]

I love his shirt!

[DIEZAUBERFLOTEMENSCH]

What a precious bit of film. I'm sure he discussed some uber deep shit with those kids. such luck.

[Lavalampoflava]

What was the kid in the beginning playing?

[kelleypb2008]

The beginning of Kreisleriana by Schumann

[kikakon]

Bad singer but unbelievable artist.

[kmal16]

hahahahah

[lechantdumonde]

Grisey, Levinas, Béroff...

[monkfishseye]

he`s such a bad singer :-)

[straypixel]

He has a composer's voice :-)

[JeeRant]

It's great to see Messiaen in person! What I would have given to be in one of his classes...

[minirausch]

isn't it incredible! to be one of those kids in the 40s (boulez et al.), going over to messiaen's house, discovering with him stravinsky, bartók, debussy, schoenberg, through his fascinating analyses..

apparently one day he wanted to discuss pelléas but he had forgotten the score, so he played all the excerpts he needed from memory. what an incredible mind.

[cedrebois]

A boy sitting at rigft side of Messiaen,Isn't that, Michel Beroff ??

[straypixel]

You could well be correct - Michel Beroff graduated (aged 16) from the Paris Conservatoire. I can't date this footage, but Jean Boivin's dissertation 'La classe de Messiaen : historique, reconstitution, impact' lists Pelleas et Melisande as a work analysed circa that date.

That, and it certainly looks like him!

[floorembden]

... and at left side : Michael Levinas. Messiaen, foi, couleur, oiseaux : prolongement et illustration des chemins de Messiaen, sur le web : "site du partenariat radio classique messiaen" - une classe d'élèves de première explore très sensiblement cet univers -

Merci pour vos émouvantes vidéos

[floorembden]

@straypixel

Michel Béroff pense que cette séquence a été tournée en 1968, il avait donc 18 ans

[mtncur]

Colour is not subjective. -- Roy G. Biv.