Turangalîla-Symphonie


The Turangalîla-Symphonie is a large-scale piece of orchestral music by Olivier Messiaen. It was written from 1946 to 1948 on a commission by Serge Koussevitzky for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
The premiere was in Boston on 2 December 1949, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The commission did not specify the duration, orchestral requirements or style of the piece, leaving the decisions to the composer. Koussevitzky was billed to conduct the premiere, but fell ill, and the task fell to the young Bernstein. Bernstein has been described as "the ideal conductor for it, and it made Messiaen's name more widely known". Yvonne Loriod, who later became Messiaen's second wife, was the piano soloist, and Ginette Martenot played the ondes Martenot for the first and several subsequent performances.
From 1953, Yvonne's sister Jeanne Loriod was the ondes Martenot player in many performances and recordings.

Concept

While most of Messiaen's compositions are religious in inspiration, at the time of writing the symphony the composer was fascinated by the myth of Tristan and Isolde, and the Turangalîla Symphony forms the central work in his trilogy of compositions concerned with the themes of romantic love and death; the other pieces are Harawi for piano with soprano and Cinq rechants for unaccompanied choir. It is considered a 20th-century masterpiece and a typical performance runs around 80 minutes in length. When asked about the meaning of the work's duration in its ten movements and the reason for the use of the ondes Martenot, Messiaen simply replied, "It's a love song."
Although the concept of a rhythmic scale corresponding to the chromatic scale of pitches occurs in Messiaen's work as early as 1944, in the Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus, the arrangement of such durations into a fixed series occurs for the first time in the opening episode of the movement "Turangalîla 2" in this work, and is an important historical step toward the concept of integral serialism.
The title of the work, and those of its movements, were a late addition to the project, chosen after Messiaen made a list of the work's movements. He described the name in his letters from 1947–1948. He derived the title from two Sanskrit words, turanga and līlā, which he explained thus:
Messiaen described the joy of Turangalîla as "superhuman, overflowing, blinding, unlimited". He revised the work in 1990.

Instrumentation

The piece is scored for:
Woodwinds
Brass
Percussion
Strings
The demanding piano part includes several solo cadenzas.

Cyclic themes

In writing about the work, Messiaen identified four cyclic themes that reappear throughout; there are other themes specific to each movement. In the score the themes are numbered, but in later writings he gave them names to make them easier to identify, without intending the names to have any other, literary meaning.

Structure

The work is in ten movements, linked by the common themes identified above, and other musical ideas:
The composer's initial plan was for a symphony in the conventional four movements, which eventually became numbers 1, 4, 6, and 10. Next, he added the three Turangalîla movements, which he originally called tâlas, a reference to the use of rhythm in Indian classical music. Finally, the 2nd, 5th, and 8th movements were inserted. Early on, Messiaen authorized separate performance of movements 3, 4, and 5, as Three tâlas, but later came to disapprove of the performance of extracts.

Recordings

ConductorOrchestraPianoOndes martenotLabelCatalogReleasedFormatNotes
Roger DésormièreOrchestre National de la RTFYvonne LoriodGinette MartenotINA1950Live recording on 25 July 1950, of the European premiere at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
Hans RosbaudSWF-Sinfonieorchester Baden-BadenYvonne LoriodGinette MartenotWergo1951
Maurice Le RouxOrchestre National de la RTFYvonne LoriodJeanne LoriodVega/Accord
  • VAL 127
  • Vega C 30 ST 20033/4
  • Vega C 35 X 940
1962
  • Box set
  • 10-inch LPs
    		• Recording supervised by Messiaen in 1961. Released in France
    Jean FournetNetherlands Radio PhilharmonicYvonne LoriodJeanne LoriodQ Disc1967Live
    Seiji OzawaToronto Symphony OrchestraYvonne LoriodJeanne LoriodRCA1967
    André PrevinLondon Symphony OrchestraMichel BéroffJeanne LoriodEMISLS 51171977Double LP
    Louis de FromentOrchestre Symphonique de RTLYvonne LoriodJeanne LoriodForlane1982Live
    Esa-Pekka SalonenPhilharmonia OrchestraPaul CrossleyTristan Murail
  • CBS Masterworks
  • Sony
  • I2M 42126
  • G010003836824C
  • 1985
  • 2018
  • 2 LPs
  • CD
    • Simon RattleCity of Birmingham Symphony OrchestraPeter DonohoeTristan MurailEMI
  • EX270468-3
  • 747463-8
    		• 1986
  • LP
  • CD
    • Myung-Whun ChungOrchestre de l'Opéra BastilleYvonne LoriodJeanne LoriodDeutsche Grammophon0289 431 7812 91990CDFirst recording of the revised version, supervised by Messiaen.
    Riccardo ChaillyRoyal Concertgebouw OrchestraJean-Yves ThibaudetTakashi HaradaDecca
  • London 436 626-2
  • 1993
  • 2012
  • CD
    • Marek JanowskiOrchestre philharmonique de Radio FranceRoger MuraroValérie Hartmann-ClaverieRCA1992
    Yan Pascal TortelierBBC PhilharmonicHoward ShelleyValérie Hartmann-ClaverieChandosCHAN96781998CD
    Antoni WitPolish National Radio Symphony OrchestraFrançois WeigelThomas BlochNaxos8.554478-9December 1998CD
    Hans VonkSaint Louis Symphony OrchestraGarrick OhlssonJean LaurendeauPentatone1999Live
    Kent NaganoBerliner PhilharmonikerPierre-Laurent AimardDominique KimTeldec8573-82043-22001CDLive recording in March 2000 in Berlin
    Norichika IimoriTokyo Symphony OrchestraKazuoki FujiiTakashi HaradaCanyon2001
    Ryusuke NumajiriJapan Philharmonic OrchestraIchiro NodairaTakashi HaradaExton2002Live
    Thierry FischerBBC National Orchestra of WalesRoger MuraroJacques TchamkertenBBC Music2006Live
    Hiroyuki IwakiMelbourne Symphony OrchestraKaori KimuraTakashi HaradaABC Classics48128732007CDLive recording in 1985. Re-released 2007.
    Sylvain CambrelingSWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und FreiburgRoger MuraroValérie Hartmann-ClaverieHänssler Classic93.2252008CD
    Juanjo MenaBergen Philharmonic OrchestraSteven OsborneCynthia MillarHyperionA678162012CD
    Hannu LintuFinnish Radio Symphony OrchestraAngela HewittValérie Hartmann-ClaverieOndineODE125152014CD
    Yutaka SadoTonkünstler OrchestraRoger MuraroValérie Hartmann-ClaverieTonkünstler OrchestraTON20052018CD