Pierre Boulez was Olivier Messiaen’s student, and while his creative life followed a very different course, something very special happened whenever Boulez conducted Messiaen’s music in concert. That was certainly the case in Frankfurt in 1990, when Boulez directed the superb young players of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie in the dazzling Chronochromie, and joined another supreme Messiaen interpreter – pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard – to perform Oiseaux Exotiques with his own Ensemble Intercontemporain. No one understood Messiaen’s music more profoundly than Boulez, and a documentary-style introduction from musicologist Michael Nupen sets the context for this uniquely authoritative celebration of two of France’s greatest postwar composers.
LSO: Sir Simon Rattle conducts Messiaen
Sir Simon Rattle ends his final Barbican concert as LSO Music Director with Messiaen’s mind-blowing Turangalîla-Symphonie – an explosion of passionate emotion and ear-tingling sound.Imagine a starburst of love on a cosmic scale. Now add a colossal orchestra, an unstoppable pianist and a vintage electronic instrument straight out of science fiction, and you’re still not even half-way to imagining Messiaen’s mind-boggling Turangalîla-Symphonie. Betsy Jolas’ music is more understated – but it still packs a tremendous emotional punch. So what happier way for Sir Simon Rattle to bring down the curtain on his years as Music Director of the LSO, before he takes up the role of Conductor Emeritus? He’s joined by two of his oldest musical friends – pianist Peter Donohoe and ondes-martenot player Cynthia Millar – who also happen to be two of Messiaen’s supreme living interpreters. And with a new work from Betsy Jolas, he’s going out as he came in, with one eye fixed confidently on the future.