December 2008 marked the centenary of the birth of Olivier Messiaen, undoubtedly one of the great musical figures of the 20th century. To celebrate, Dublin-born pianist Isabelle O'Connell and American pianist Laura Barger first brought his two-piano masterpiece Visions de l'Amen to life that year in a New York concert. The following year, they brought their performance of this work to Irish audiences with two special concerts on Friday, May 29th at the Cork School of Music and on Saturday, May 30th at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. These concerts were made possible with funding from the Arts Council of Ireland.

Filled with ecstatic emotional intensity and vivid keyboard colors, Visions de l'Amen was written in 1943. This followed Messiaen's release from a prisoner-of- war camp in 1941 and the work was written for the phenomenal 19-year-old pianist Yvonne Loriod (his student, later to become his second wife). The work was premiered in Occupied Paris with Loriod playing piano one and Messiaen himself playing piano two. According to the composer's notes in the score, the first piano part hasthe rhythmic difficulties, the bunches of chords, everything concerned with speed, allure, and quality of sound while the second piano gets the principal melody, the thematic elements, everything demanding emotion and power.

back to: