Messiaen Huit preludes. Quatre etudes de rythme. Canteyodjaya Haakon Austbo pf

Naxos R 8 554090 (65 minutes: DDD)

A further recording from a master Messiaen interpreter, Haakon Austbo, in a mixed programme that calls for all his colouristic control

Discussing previous volumes in this series (12/94 and 2/98) I've mentioned Austbo's subtle palette of keyboard colour, and his sensitive feeling for Messiaen's characteristic silences. I should have remarked - and it's evident here throughout the Preludes especially - upon his ability to produce different degrees of dynamic simultaneously, without the quieter elements ever being overwhelmed. It adds an almost three-dimensional quality to his sound. Which is not to say that his playing is ever austere or dry; indeed its primary characteristic is sheer tonal beauty, emphasised by what sounds like a very fine piano in a pleasing acoustic (that of St Martin's Church, East Woodhay).

More spectacular pianism is called for in the vivid colours and juxtapositions of Canteyodjaya, of course, and Austbo provides it in fine measure, but even here sheer beauty of sound seems to have been a high imperative. I have heard the two 'Ile de feu' pieces (the first and last of the Etudes de rythme) played more ferociously, and I'm not sure that Austbo provides the seven gradations of dynamic and 12 of attack that the second Etude, Mode de valeurs et d'intensites, calls for, but I don't know that anyone else does so either. Are 12 distinct degrees of attack available on the piano? Messiaen has been very fortunate in his keyboard interpreters. Austbo is among the best of them, and to have such playing available at such a low price is a cause for grateful rejoicing.