LINCOLN CENTER

New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall

Messiaen - Turangalila-Sympnonie

Esa-Pekka Salonen - Conductor
Yuja Wang - Piano

“Superhuman, overflowing, dazzling and abandoned.” So said Messiaen of his surreal exploration of romantic love and death. Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen, conducting these concerts, loves its “outrageous, limitless, free nature … sweet melodies spiced with the otherworldly sound of the ondes martenot, Southern Indian rhythms … birdsong and outrageous dances.”

"Exotic, thrilling, otherworldly — those are some of the adjectives one might apply to Messiaen’s 20th century masterpiece, Turangalȋla-symphonie. Its title is based on two Sanskrit words: turanga and lȋla, meaning “time” and “love/play.” The composer described the work simply as “a song of love”— in all of its manifestations — inspired by the legend of Tristan and Isolde, in which (at least as Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde interpreted it) transcendent love is achieved only in death. Amid the lushness and rapture — even terror — of this sprawling 10-movement score, the most striking and unusual sound to our ears is that of the ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument played on a keyboard with a slide mechanism. (Ginette Martenot, sister of the inventor of the instrument, played the ondes Martenot at the premiere.) You’ll hear it create unmistakable swooping sounds, or ring out sensuously, or function like underpinning to other goings-on in the orchestra. There’s also a major role for a virtuoso pianist and a massive battery of percussion instruments. Listening sign posts: the theme conveying sensual love in the movement titled “Joy of the Blood of the Stars” and Messiaen’s hallmark evocation of bird songs in the piano part of the movement titled “The Garden of Love’s Sleep.” One thing is practically certain about Turangalȋla-symphonie: hearing it promises to be an experience unlike any you’ve had before."