January 8, 2014.Messiaen, Berlioz.Two great French composers, Olivier Messiaen and Hector Berlioz (and several others, see below) were born this week.Messiaen was born on December 10th, 1908 in Avignon.His mother was a poet and his father – an English teacher and translator of Shakespeare into French.Olivier entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 11 and while there he was awarded several prizes, in harmony and in fugue writing among them.He studied the organ, first with the composer and organist Marcel Dupré and later with Charles-Marie Widor, also a composer and one of the most famous organists of his time.In 1931 Messiaen became the organist of the church de la Sainte-Trinité in the 9th arrondissement, and remained in that position for the following 61 years.Messiaen accepted the Catholic faith at an early age, and many of his compositions were overtly religious.Early in his life (in 1932) he wrote an orchestral piece L'ascension ("The Ascension") and three years later, an organ work titled La Nativité du Seigneur (The Nativity of the Lord).Later in his career, in the 1960s, he wrote La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ ("The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ"), a huge work of about one and a half hour’s duration which is scored for the piano, cello and other instrumental solos, a large choir and the orchestra.Later in his life he wrote his only opera, Saint François d'Assise, based on the life of the saint (Messiaen wrote the libretto himself, studying historical sources in the process).One of most interesting pieces in this genre is his piano work Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus (usually translated as “Twenty contemplations on the infant Jesus”).It consists of 20 movements, and we have several in our library.Here is the first movement, Regard du Père ("Contemplation of the Father"), a beautiful, deeply meditative piece, and here – Regard de l'étoile ("Contemplation of the star"), the second movement with its brief celestial motif.Both are performed by the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who studied with Yvonne Loriod, Messiaen’s second wife.(Aimard is one of the most interesting, highly regarded interpreters of modern music; he recently embarked on a tour playing Book I of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.That, in our opinion, was less successful).
Hector Berlioz was born on December 11th, 1803 in a small town of La Côte-Saint-André in thesoutheast of France.One hundred years apart and completely different in styles, Berlioz and Messiaen have one thing in common: both were absolutely unique, outside of the mainstream music of their time.If you look at the timeline of Berlioz as a composer, it starts in 1830 with the publication of Symphonie fantastique and lasts for the following 30 years, the first half dedicated mostly to symphonic pieces, and the second half – to opera.It coincides with the most creative years of Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn in the first half, Wagner and Verdi in the second.Berlioz is unlike any of them.Franz Liszt, who was strongly influenced by Berlioz, is probably the closest to him in all of music literature.In France, Berlioz struggled to be recognized as a composer (Giacomo Meyerbeer was much more popular), even while being praised as a conductor (half a century later, in Vienna, that would also be Mahler’s fate).Symphonie fantastique was premier in December of 1830, and remained in the orchestral repertory ever since. is the second movement, Un Bal, in the performance by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis conducting.
We need to mention two more birthdays, that of Jean Sibelius (December 8th, 1865) and César Franck’s, on December 10th of 1822.
Messiaen, Berlioz 2014
January 8, 2014. Messiaen, Berlioz. Two great French composers, Olivier Messiaen and Hector Berlioz (and several others, see below) were born this week. Messiaen was born on December 10th,
1908 in Avignon. His mother was a poet and his father – an English teacher and translator of Shakespeare into French. Olivier entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 11 and while there he was awarded several prizes, in harmony and in fugue writing among them. He studied the organ, first with the composer and organist Marcel Dupré and later with Charles-Marie Widor, also a composer and one of the most famous organists of his time. In 1931 Messiaen became the organist of the church de la Sainte-Trinité in the 9th arrondissement, and remained in that position for the following 61 years. Messiaen accepted the Catholic faith at an early age, and many of his compositions were overtly religious. Early in his life (in 1932) he wrote an orchestral piece L'ascension ("The Ascension") and three years later, an organ work titled La Nativité du Seigneur (The Nativity of the Lord). Later in his career, in the 1960s, he wrote La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ ("The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ"), a huge work of about one and a half hour’s duration which is scored for the piano, cello and other instrumental solos, a large choir and the orchestra. Later in his life he wrote his only opera, Saint François d'Assise, based on the life of the saint (Messiaen wrote the libretto himself, studying historical sources in the process). One of most interesting pieces in this genre is his piano work Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus (usually translated as “Twenty contemplations on the infant Jesus”). It consists of 20 movements, and we have several in our library. Here is the first movement, Regard du Père ("Contemplation of the Father"), a beautiful, deeply meditative piece, and here – Regard de l'étoile ("Contemplation of the star"), the second movement with its brief celestial motif. Both are performed by the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who studied with Yvonne Loriod, Messiaen’s second wife. (Aimard is one of the most interesting, highly regarded interpreters of modern music; he recently embarked on a tour playing Book I of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. That, in our opinion, was less successful).
Hector Berlioz was born on December 11th, 1803 in a small town of La Côte-Saint-André in thesoutheast of France. One hundred years apart and completely different in styles, Berlioz and Messiaen have one thing in common: both were absolutely unique, outside of the mainstream music of their time. If you look at the timeline of Berlioz as a composer, it starts in 1830 with the publication of Symphonie fantastique and lasts for the following 30 years, the first half dedicated mostly to symphonic pieces, and the second half – to opera. It coincides with the most creative years of Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn in the first half, Wagner and Verdi in the second. Berlioz is unlike any of them. Franz Liszt, who was strongly influenced by Berlioz, is probably the closest to him in all of music literature. In France, Berlioz struggled to be recognized as a composer (Giacomo Meyerbeer was much more popular), even while being praised as a conductor (half a century later, in Vienna, that would also be Mahler’s fate). Symphonie fantastique was premier in December of 1830, and remained in the orchestral repertory ever since. is the second movement, Un Bal, in the performance by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis conducting.
We need to mention two more birthdays, that of Jean Sibelius (December 8th, 1865) and César Franck’s, on December 10th of 1822.