In Harawi the green dove /Piroutcha, moves finally into the darkness, and we return to the image of the quiet, sleeping town of the cycle’s opening.
In contrast, the last movement of the Turangalîla symphony – marked avec une grande joie [with great joy] – is a fortissimo, boisterous affair and ends with the triumphal love theme followed by a sustained chord of F-sharp major.
The last movement of the last work of this set of three Tristan works, the fifth of the five Rechants, has the most ambiguous close of the three. It ends with the composer’s favoured interval, the augmented fourth, set to the words dans l’avenir [in the future].
Olivier Messiaen:
Harawi
XII. Dans le noir
Turangalîla-symphonie:
Final
I. Introduction 0:00:48
II. Chant d’amour 1 0:07:31 ∙
III. Turangalîla 1 0:15:58 ∙
IV. Chant d’amour 2 0:21:30
V. Joie du sang des étoiles 0:32:56
VI. Jardin du sommeil d’amour 0:39:53 ∙
VII. Turangalîla 2 0:52:02
VIII. Développement de l’amour 0:55:45
IX. Turangalîla 3 1:07:25
X. Final 1:12:38 ∙
Cinque Rechant:
Rechant V
Les six:
France’s answer to Russia’s nationalist Five (the ‘mighty handful’) of Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin and Cui was the group that you see above. From the left they are Francis Poulenc, Germaine Tailleferre, Louis Durey, Georges Auric [absent, but there’s a sketch of him on the wall], Jean Cocteau [not a member of Les Six but a major driving force behind it], Darius Milhaud and Arthur Honegger [who’s not French but Swiss].
Here are a four works by two members of the group whose music has withstood the test of time. The Poulenc works contrast his cheeky, streetwise style with his later, more austere, religious music. While Milhaud’s La Création du Monde illustrates the contemporary fascination with jazz, and Scaramouche his use of so-called bi-tonality.
Francis Poulenc:
Concerto for two pianos
Allegro ma non troppo 00:00
Larghetto 08:22
Finale. Allegro molto 13:44 ∙
Salve Regina
Darius Milhaud:
La Création du Monde
Two neo-classical examples below, the ‘baroque’ Suite in F with its Preludium, Sarabande and Gigue; and, generally acknowledged to be his best known work, the Third Symphony in g.
Scaramouche
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as “fair use”, for the purpose of study, and critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of the copyright owner(s).
The Art of Listening 