I am reporting this video by Peter Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLvfj7BUcDs
http://en.wikipedia....r_Hill_(pianist)
Hill speaks about the following 2 works:
Stravinsky:
Le Sacre du printemps in the composer's own version for Piano duet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5fBUtSOju0
Messiaen: vision de l'amen for two pianos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6JgjDmzmyc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pel8CXH8wFQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUBQaHc_2oc
... regarding Messiaen
To explain this title, M. places a quotation by Ernest Hello before the score: "Amen, word of Genesis, which is the apocalypse of the beginning. Amen, word of the Apocalypse, which is the Genesis of consummation."
Then the composer himself illustrates the spiritual origin of the piece:
"Amen assumes four different meanings: Amen, let it be! The creative act. Amen, I submit, I accept. Thy will be done! Amen, the hope, the desire that it be, that You give to me and I to You! Amen, this is, decided forever, consummated in Paradise. Where we reach the life of creatures who say 'amen' for the mere fact that they exist; I have tried to express the variety of Amen in seven musical visions."
Seven is the perfect number: "the Creation of the six days sanctified by the divine sabbath" Messiaen reminds us.
The numbers 1, 3, 4, 7 correspond to the four meanings of the word "Amen" as described by the author, while the numbers 2 and 5 are destined for creatures and the number 6 (the shortest) instead represents the amen du Jugement.
Les Visions de l'Amen constitute the first piano work of theological inspiration after the organ cycles of the pre-war period and the first work in which Messiaen introduces the idea of a cyclic theme, which in this case is the theme of creation.
