Listen: Christopher Taylor Plays Messiaen's 'Vingt Regards'
New Sounds Live | Sep 7, 2011
On Dec. 11, 2012, powerhouse pianist Christopher Taylor performed Olivier Messiaen's meditation on the infancy of Jesus, Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Medieval Sculpture Hall.
Written in 1944 for his student and second wife, Yvonne Loroid, the Vingt Regards ("Twenty Contemplations of the Baby Jesus") are one of the composer's most sustained articulations of faith and present a fiendish challenge for even the most ambitious of pianists. Taylor has made the piece a specialty since performing it over a decade ago at Columbia University's Miller Theater.
Above is the archived audio of the complete two-hour performance, delivered by Taylor — from memory — with both lyrical and technical aplomb.
