Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Intro: MESSIAEN Turangalîla Symphony

Olivier Messiaen wrote his epic Turangalîla Symphony at a particularly fecund creative period in music history. Contemporary to this piece are works like Bernstein’s jazzy “Fancy Free,” Cage’s experimental “Sonatas and Interludes” for prepared piano, Boulez’s strident and atonal Second Piano Sonata, and Strauss’s lush and Romantic “Four Last Songs.” But while each of these other pieces can be charted and classified amongst mid-20th century artistic movements in music history, Messiaen’s work defies clear taxonomy.

Messiaen wove together many disparate influences to create a musical language all his own—one he more or less maintained through his entire artistic output. Building on the compositional techniques of his Impressionist predecessors, he incorporated into his work everything from Indian classical music, ancient Greek scales, Gregorian chant, and most importantly, the bird songs that he constantly and meticulously transcribed wherever he went.

The Turangalîla Symphony’s title is a portmanteau of two Sanskrit words that together refer to the cycle of life, death, creation, and love. On such an expansive topic Messiaen wrote an expansive piece, with a full orchestra, virtuosic, concerto-like piano part, and the ondes Martenot, an electric keyboard instrument that was relatively new at the time. The work is nearly 90 minutes long and consists of ten movements that are inspired by the medieval story of Tristan and Isolde (sometimes written “Iseult”) that embodied the unrequited love ideals of the Middle Ages (and became a theme of so many works of music after!).

The piece was premiered in 1949 by the Boston Symphony under the baton of a 30-year-old Leonard Bernstein. Many contemporary critics and writers had a hard enough time understanding Messiaen’s fairly avant-garde work. But Serge Koussevitzky, the conductor responsible for perhaps the most important commissions of the early 20th century, declared Messiaen’s new symphony to be the most important work written since “The Rite of Spring.” Given the piece’s impact on so many composers since it was written, this assessment seems deeply prophetic.
--David Serkin Ludwig

Watch the full performance:    • Curtis Symphony Orchestra: MESSIAEN Turang...  

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