«CHRISTMAS» FROM THE CYCLE “TWENTY VIEWS OF THE INFANT JESUS” BY OLIVIER MESSIAEN, INTERPRETED BY JÓZSEF ERMÍNYI

Abstract

Yozeph Ermin is an outstanding Ukrainian pianist, soloist, chamber ensemble artist, concertmaster. He performs with orchestras of various compositions too and carries out the concert activities in Ukraine and abroad. The music of the 20th century, and in particular, the works of the outstanding French composer Olivier Messiaen occupies a special place in Yozeph Erminʼs repertoire. Olivier Messiaenʼs “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus” is a relevant material for scientific research, especially in Western musicology, but there are only a few works devoted to interpretive problems (Maurice Roy, Charles Seifert, Shave Anderson, Colin Noble). The research of Ukrainian context of this problem has not even begun yet. The main objective(s) of the study is to determine the most characteristic features of Olivier Messiaenʼs cycle “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus” in the interpretation of Ukrainian pianist Yozeph Ermin (on the example of “Noël”). Methodology. Authors compare this interpretation with a number of other well-known interpretations and uses the next scientific methods: intonation analysis, compositive and interpretive analysis, methods of observation, comparison and generalization. Scientific novelty of the research is determined by absolutely new problem, although at the same time it is very relevant (the research of the specified problem has never been conducted, although it has the great importance for Ukrainian piano performance). Conclusions. Jozeph Ermin’s interpretation of the composition “Noël” from Olivier Messiaenʼs cycle “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus” can be defined as a lyrical-dramatic “Christmas Story”. In general, it is close to the theatrical interpretation of this composition by Kristoffer Hyldig, but unlike it, it is much more emotional. Yozeph Ermin’s interpretation is characterized by vivid eventfulness. It is the result of a dynamic-processual interpretation of the composition, which radically distinguishes it from the static and meditative interpretation of this work by Yvonne Lor iod. It gives the reasons to affirm the unconditional originality of the interpretation proposed by Yozeph Ermin – both as the technological as the conceptual level. Authors also claim (based on the comparison of tempos) the typological affinity of Yozeph Ermin’s interpretation with the interpretive approach of Olivier Messian. Yozeph Ermin as a student of Maria Krushelnytska and a follower of the Heinrich Neuhaus’s piano school managed to grasp the specifics of the Western European rational attitude to art in its combination with the meditative practices of the East. The pianist’s inherent desire to “sharpen and purify the hearing” concerns, among other things, his self-directed search for original, independent from generally accepted, “authoritative” or “fashionable” interpretative solutions. Purification of hearing, “work with clean ears”, “blessed hearing” in Yozeph Ermin’s system of coordinate includes interpretive concepts closely related to ethical values. The pianist contrasts the “poetry” of Ukrainian pianism with the “prose” of Western pianism. His lyrical-dramatic interpretation of Olivier Messiaenʼs “Noël” from cycle “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus” as the actual “Christmas Story” vividly confirms this.