The label that can’t get Messiaen right

The label that can’t get Messiaen right

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norman lebrecht

November 07, 2017

Message to the monoglots at Sony Classical from violinist Renaud Capucon:

 

 

‘Olivier MESSIAEN was a Major French composer. His name should be written:”MESSIAEN”,not “MESSAIEN”‘. Rc

Comments

  • Virenque says:

    What does the picture represents? A train compartment? Remember the work was composed when Messiaen was a prisoner in Germany.

  • Dennis says:

    Yes, because spelling errors are a sure sign of “monoglotism” rather than mere sloppiness in production. I’m sure no native Frenchman has ever misspelled Messiaen’s or anyone else’s name.

  • boringfileclerk says:

    They also got the interpretation wrong. They play it as if it’s some Merchant Ivory film soundtrack. I found the whole vanity project disappointing from a collection of artists who should have, and have done, much better.

  • Jean says:

    I see it correct elsewhere so my guess is that it is not in the final product. (Hopefully.)

  • David Boxwell says:

    “Messaien” looks Finnish to me.

    He’s called “Messy Anne” in this house.

  • Ben says:

    I’ve actually seen it spelt right everywhere so might be a fake or something 😉

  • A cute accent says:

    Fröst gets his accent. Thedéen doesn’t?

  • Alex Davies says:

    It’s a name, so I’m not sure whether it’s really a problem of proficiency in French or of simple ignorance of spelling or, indeed, a typo that ought to have been spotted at proof stage. I’m sure that I have sometimes misspelled English names, despite it being my native language. I know that the first time I saw the name Markyate I actually read it as Marykate, assuming it to be a compound of the names Mary and Kate. The name Winthrop has always looked and sounded odd to me, and I’m sure it’s not infrequently confused with Winthorpe, which looks and sounds more natural and has a more obvious etymology. And then you have Althorp, lacking the expected final e, which is apparently pronounced Alltrup. If I can be baffled by my own language I’m inclined to forgive a misspelled French name.

  • pianofreak says:

    I see Messiaen everywhere on the disc (in the catalogs, interpreter’s sites etc) spelled correctly. Where has it been found?

  • Felix Ang says:

    Is there a reason why French publications often use “Jean-Sébastien Bach”, often on concert programmes?

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