This is a transcendental premiere recording with the National Orchestra of the Polish Radio, Katowice, conducted by
Antoni Wit. The generally accepted translation of the title of
Messiaen's last work from 1992, Illuminations From The Beyond ..., is somewhat tame compared to the equally appropriate and more apt Lightning-Flashes from the Beyond ... . For example, in the section Seven Angels with Seven Trumpets, the full brass unisons accompanied with whipcracks and deep rolls from the bass drum and gong elicit the most chilling and majestic feelings, like an ancient sense of the mysterious eternal. Likewise, The Way to the Invisible opens gates to the subconscious with beautiful yet bizarre harmonic sweeps in the strings, full chordal annunciations in the brass, and "total chromatic" (massed tone cluster) backdrops which accompany the Song of the Pied Butcherbird. As in several other
Messiaen works, birds are seen as intermediaries between the heavenly and the earthly. There is a gorgeous menagerie of twenty-five bird songs played freely and simultaneously in the section entitled Several Birds from the Trees of Life, and birdsong also appears in many other passages throughout the piece. Lovely, unique melodic strains appear in several sections: God Will Wipe Every Tear From Their Eyes ... ; the exquisitely moving (yet not "sensual") Dwelling in Love, for sixteen muted first violins and, unmuted, six violin, six viola and six cello solos; and in the finale Christ, Light of Paradise, with its resonance chords and colorful modes. This piece is a deeply sincere statement of faith in the natural revelation of the Great Mystery, and expresses this faith in clear, beautiful musical images, neither over-emotional nor distanced through austerity.