A single work makes up this evening's concert, as WCRB tells us:
Saturday, April 13, 2024
8:00pmEncore broadcast on Monday, April 22
French composer Olivier Messiaen was famously synesthetic, “hearing” colors as harmony and seeing colors in sound. Turangalîla-symphonie summed up the composer’s passions for nature, birdsong, Catholicism, Eastern philosophy and music, and romantic love as embodied in the legend of Tristan and Isolde. Andris Nelsons conducts, Yuja Wang plays the work’s substantial piano part, and Cécile Lartigau performs the rarely heard ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument invented in 1925.
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano
Cécile Lartigau, ondes MartenotOlivier MESSIAEN Turangalîla-symphonie
Here's the link to the BSO performance detail page,where you can follow the link to the program note. Messiaen's own description of the parts which is there may help. They summarize:
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano
Cécile Lartigau, ondes MartenotMESSIAEN Turangalîla-symphonie
French composer Olivier Messiaen was famously synesthetic, “hearing” colors as harmony and seeing colors in sound. The Turangalîla-symphonie summed up the composer’s passions for nature, birdsong, Catholicism, Eastern philosophy, music, and romantic love as embodied in the legend of Tristan and Isolde; in this concert, Andris Nelsons leads this work that the BSO premiered in 1949 under Leonard Bernstein’s baton. The brilliant Yuja Wang takes on the work’s hefty piano part and Cécile Lartigau performs on the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument. Turangalîla was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky.
There are favorable reviews in the Globe and in the Intelligencer.
I hadn't really expected to enjoy it yesterday, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is pretty cacophonous at times, but not terribly off-putting; and there are calm passages as well. So I recommend giving it a try. I'll be listening this evening and again on the 22nd if I'm free.
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