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In his exuberant post-WWII work, the Turangalîla Symphony, French composer Olivier Messiaen took the commission proposed by Serge Koussevitsky to heart: ‘compose the work as you like, in any style and length, with the instrumentation you would like, and I impose no time limit for you to deliver the work.’ Commissioned in 1945, the work started on 17 July 1946 and was completed and orchestrated by 29 November 1948. It was given its premiere on 2 December 1949 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein.
Olivier Messiaen
The work, some 75 minutes in length over 10 movements, was considered by Messiaen as ‘one of my richest works in terms of findings, it is also the most melodic, the warmest, the most dynamic and the most coloured’.
The title of the work combines two Sanskrit words, as explained by Messiaen: ‘Lîla literally means play, but play in the sense of divine action on the cosmos, the play of creation, of destruction and reconstruction, the play of life and death. Lîla is also Love. Turanga is Time, the time which runs like a galloping horse, time which slips like sand through the hourglass. Turanga is movement and rhythm. Turangalîla then signifies at one and the same time, a love song, a hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death.’
Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance that brings together Yuja Wang as piano soloist and Cécile Lartigau as ondes Martenot soloist. Each soloist has their work cut out for them. Wang tackles the part with verve, and Lartigau, as one of the rare ondes Martenot soloists, brings her skills to a tremendous high.
Yuja Wang (photo by Kirk Edwards)
Yuja Wang with Andris Nelsons and BSO, 2024
Cécile Lartigau, 2022 (Photo by Martin Kubik)
The ondes Martenot was a French electro-acoustic instrument that consists of a keyboard and a speaker (palme). The keyboard can be played in two ways: either as a regular keyboard or via a metal ring worn on the finger that moves on a wire. A drawer on the instrument permits control of dynamics and timbre.
The ring method of playing the ondes Martenot, with the left hand controlling dynamics and timbre (photo by 30rKs56MaE)
The piano solo part calls for a virtuoso pianist, and in Yuja Wang’s playing, this performance comes to life. At times, simply adding colour to massive movements in the brass and, at other times, carrying her own melodies and ideas, Wang takes control of the work in a way that unifies this large rambling work.
Messiaen organises the work around 4 musical themes that return: the Statue Theme (heard in the trombones in the first movement), the Flower Theme (played by the clarinets pianissimo, also in the first movement). The Love Theme doesn’t appear until the 6th movement, first in hushed strings. The last theme is chord-based and abstract and appears in the background as a unifying sound.
In the sixth movement, both present and future Messiaen seem to be present: we have the Love Theme presented and then expanded by the strings and ondes Martenot, and then the piano presents a stylised bird song. Bird song will become important to Messiaen’s later works, although later he tries to present it as it sounds, rather than stylising it as he does here. In Messiaen’s vision of this movement, ‘The two lovers are enclosed in love’s sleep. A landscape comes out from them…’.
Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie – VI. Jardin du sommeil d’amour. Très modéré, très tendre
In later movements, the lovers take a love potion and become trapped in a passion that seems to drive them to the infinite. By the end of the work, in a glorious drive to the end, a massive F sharp major chord signals that ‘glory and joy are without end’.
Yuja Wang’s technical brilliance, in view for so many years, comes to the fore here, even in a work where the stage has to be shared with another keyboardist. It’s not a work that many have attempted, given both the demands of Messiaen’s writing and the lack of primary position for the pianist, but Wang brings something more to the proceedings. She matches the electro-acoustic sounds of the ondes Martenot with a degree of virtuosity that brings the piano part into greater prominence than in many other performances. The joy of Messiaen’s paean to love, celebrating its joy and passion, and even in those times when love sweeps all before it, comes to full fruition in this recording.
Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony
Yuja Wang, piano;
Cécile Lartigau, ondes Martenot;
Boston Symphony Orchestra;
Andris Nelsons, cond.
Deutsche Grammophon 515785000
Release date: 18 July 2025 (previous digital-only release, December 2024)
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