What...shall we talk about?

I miss talking about music on my blog. Naturally I realise that the only person stopping me from doing so is...well...me.

So I'm going to talk about music a little more. It really is that simple. My goal is to use this as a laboratory for writing about music in order to get a little better at it. Why? Because one day I'm going back to school and I'm going to have to do it anyway; so I may as well get a head start. To that end I'm going to try and right the ship, as it were. Along the way I'll hopefully take a little closer look at anything that strikes my interest without limitation to date of composition, style or genre.

But don't worry; we'll continue talking about movies and politics and all that other stuff, too. We wouldn't want things to get boring, now would we?

From the Archive: Turangalîla

This post was originally meant for publication last February after the Elusive 4th Tenor and I attended the St. Louis Symphony performance of Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony.

I've been trying to think of the best way to write about the experience of hearing Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony live for the first (and dear God please don't let it be the last) time.

For me, Turangalîla is one of those desert island pieces along with The Rite of Spring, La Mer, the 3rd Symphony of Sibelius and a handful of others. It's endlessly fascinating and, for the attentive listener it reveals something new with each hearing. Strains of birdsong, Hindu and Greek rhythms, imaginary echoes of a long-forgotten gamelan, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and, to my ear, a certain Gershwinesque kind of song-and-dance joie de vivre; this wrapped up in Messiaen's truly original way of thinking musically and a brilliant sense of orchestration all inform Turangalîla's sense of rhythm and drive.

The genius of the way the St. Louis Symphony presented Turangalîla was to make it accessible. It was designed as a lecture-performance. The first half of the program the conductor, David Robertson, talked about Messiaen and the piece and conducted the orchestra in excerpts of each movement. The second half was the performance itself.

And what a performance.

The orchestra navigated the piece terrifically. I never felt a sense of "Oh god, I hope we get through this next passage!". It was also nice to hear the ondes martenot in such a way that it neither played over nor under the orchestra. Elusive 4th Tenor and I also discussed that it sounded as though David Robertson is attempting to cultivate an "English" sound to the orchestra. Truly a memorable performance.