Olivier Messiaen, David Del Tredici, Robert Helps

Featuring: George Bennette

condition (record/cover): NM / EX+ - George Bennette, Pianist Plays The Preludes Of Messiaen, The Fantasy Pieces Of Del Tredici, And Portrait By Helps on Desto places Olivier Messiaen alongside two Americans, David Del Tredici and Robert Helps, transatlantic triangulation that the title makes explicit. George Bennette at the piano unifies an otherwise heterogeneous program.

Messiaen's Preludes date from the 1920s, youthful works already containing the modes of limited transposition and iridescent harmonies of his maturity. Del Tredici, who would later embrace brazen neotonalism with his Alice in Wonderland cycles, here remains in modernist phase, fantasy pieces conceding nothing to facility. Helps completes the program with a piano portrait of austere beauty.

Desto documented the American contemporary scene with seriousness that major labels didn't always guarantee. Including Messiaen in the program perhaps served as commercial bait: the already-famous Frenchman attracts listeners who then discover Del Tredici and Helps. Legitimate strategy, serving music that deserved it.