Gramophone – September 2019

102 GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019 gramophone.co.uk

WHAT NEXT?

essiaen’s

urangalîla-symphonie (1948)

Do you have a favourite piece of music and want to explore further? Our monthly

feature suggests some musical journeys that venture beyond the most familiar works,

with some recommended versions. This month Peter Quantrill’s point of departure is ...

Haydn

Sinfoniaconcertante

L Boulanger

Vieilleprièrebouddhique

Scriabin

Prometheus

Foulds

Three Mantras

Messiaen

Cinq rechants

Messiaen

Des canyons aux étoiles...

Ohana

T’Harân-Ngô

Birtwistle

Earth Dances

Wagner

Tristan und Isolde

Jolivet

Cinq danses rituelles

Messiaen

Turangalîla-symphonie

1 3

2 4

A

cclaimed by Serge Koussevitzky as the most important score

since The Rite of Spring but dismissed by Boulez as ‘brothel

music’, the Turangalîla-symphonie (part two of Messiaen’s

self-declared ‘Tristan trilogy’) has continued to divide listeners.

As a piece of more secular than sacred inspiration it stands almost

alone in Messiaen’s output. Yet its elevated eroticism, embodied

in the grunts, whoops and swoops of the concertante part for ondes

martenot, belongs to the expression of yearning for oneness with

God in Christ, and joy in his presence, which motivate works as far

apart as L’Ascension (1933) and Éclairs sur l’au delà... (1991). So, for

all its moments of splashy kitsch – and maybe because of them too –

the 10-movement Turangalîla remains a window on to Messiaen’s

world as alluring and polychromatic as the stained glass of the French

Gothic cathedrals where he found a spiritual and musical home.

Sir Simon Rattle’s recording is distinguished by Peter Donohoe’s

muscular and glittering virtuosity in the work’s central part for piano.

● Soloists; CBSO / Simon Rattle (Warner, 12/87)

1 Precedents

HaydnSinfonia concertante (1792) While Messiaen (like

Tchaikovsky) revered Mozart above all his forebears, it was

Haydn (as ever) who established a model for writing symphonic

conversations led by fi rst one and then another soloist. For the sake

of good box offi ce, a rivalry was confected by Haydn’s impresario

Salomon between the composer and his friend and former pupil

Pleyel (also resident in London at the time). Within a fortnight

or so Haydn had turned out this effortlessly good-humoured

concerto-symphony, giving his friends in Salomon’s orchestra their

moment of glory just as Messiaen wrote Turangalîla with usefully

career-advancing solo spots for his young pupil (not yet wife) the

pianist Yvonne Loriod and her ondes martenot playing sister Jeanne.

● Soloists; Orchestra Mozart / Claudio Abbado (Claves, 2/15)

L BoulangerVieille prière bouddhique (1917) No one before

Messiaen made so comprehensive a synthesis of Indian words,