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Philharmonia Orchestra: Olivier Messiaen Cycle & Video Clip Bonanza

  Tobias

Esa-Pekka Salonen also talks about the many different aspects of the Turangalîla Symphony, one of which he identifies as its proximity to Zen Buddhism: „ Time stops, the harmony moves very slowly, and on top of some kind of a cloud or cushion of harmony, little stylised birds move around.“

In a second movie, Anthony Fogg, Artistic Administrator of the Boston Symphony Orchestra puts the piece into perspective with regard to his concert hall's outstanding commission policy and the time the Turangalila Symphony was composed in: „When you look at the works that were created for the orchestra either through the Koussevitsky Music Fund or through the orchestra’s own commissioning programme, it’s a little like the history of music in the 20th century“, Fogg proudly remarked. „We don’t have much documentation about the first thoughts of Messiaen, at least in correspondence with the Boston Symphony, about the nature of the piece. He was already
conceiving these large cyclic pieces with a number of movements all thematically inter-related,
and in a way Turangalîla offered him the opportunity to explore sonically those ideas in a much
larger canvas.“

Fogg also stressed the freedom awarded to Olivier Messiaen by Serge Koussevitsky (who was directly responsible for the commission): „In giving the commission to Messiaen, he in almost an unbelievable way set no limits. He said the work could be written for whatever forces Messiaen decided to write for, it could be of any duration, and he could deliver it whenever it was completed.“

The amazing wealth of information provided on the site surely proves that the Philharmonia Orchestra is spending its money wisely. For those willing to dig even deeper, there are clips on the percussion work in the Turangalila Symphony, more information about the importance of Birdsong and a short extension into the field of Olivier Messiaen's (in)famous Organ works.

The exact concert dates, by the way, are as follows:

6, 7 & 15 February
Messiaen -
Turangalîla-symphonie
Basingstoke, London & Southend

9 & 10 February
Programme includes:
Messiaen -
Oiseaux Exotiques
Stravinsky -
The Rite of Spring
Cardiff & London

Homepage: Philharmonia Orchestra