Messiaen: Visions de l'Amen; Debussy: En Blanc et Noir – review

Van Raat/Austbo(Naxos)Debussy's two-piano masterpiece and Messiaen's devotional cycle make a logical pairing. Both were composed during wartime: En Blanc et Noir dates from 1915 and its central movement is dedicated to a French officer killed in action, while Visions de l'Amen, completed in 1943, was Messiaen's first major score after his return to Paris from internment in a German POW camp. Both are sometimes turbulent works, but perhaps not as turbulent as these performances by Robin van Raat ...

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