An immense tour de force

With his Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus, Olivier Messiaen wrote an overwhelming masterpiece, a twenty-part cycle lasting no less than two hours. The music demands the utmost from a pianist: from whisper-soft chords full of mystery to overwhelming ecstasy in which the fortissimos turn the grand piano into a sound cathedral. Only a handful of pianists dare to undertake this immense tour de force. Ralph van Raat has been performing the cycle for many years and turns every recital of the Vingt Regards into an unforgettable experience.

Messiaen started his cycle in 1944, when Paris was still occupied by the Germans. He completed the Vingt Regards a year later, after the liberation.  The story of Christmas is illuminated from all angles: from the motherly love of Mary to a vision of the future in which the triumphant Jesus rushes on a fiery horse through a wild sky filled with lightning.