New conductors in LA, NY pose a challenge to the BSO’s agenda Oct 18, 2009
But rather than singing the usual Strauss or Mozart, she agreed to take on Poemes pour Mi, the pulse-quickening song cycle by the 20th-century master Olivier Messiaen. After intermission Gilbert led a cogent if slightly restrained account of Berlioz s Symphonie Fantastique. (Boston Globe)
For the teachers and parents of musicians, celebrate Oct 15, 2009
One of the most profound musical compositions of all time is the Quartet for the End of Time written by French composer Olivier Messiaen in 1940. Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the war against Nazi Germany. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Metro)
Alex Ross: Alan Gilbert takes over at the New York Philharmonic. Oct 13, 2009
Alan Gilbert takes over the New York Philharmonic : The New Yorker (New Yorker)
Pierre Boulez to Receive Inamori Foundation's 25th Annual Kyoto Prize for Lifetime Achievement in "Arts and Philosophy" Jun 19, 2009
His works from the 1950s (including Structures for Two Pianos, Book I and Le marteau sans matre) further developed the methodologies of Olivier Messiaen and Ren Leibowitz, under whom he had studied, while creating strong links to major musical trends forged by such artists as Claude Debussy, Anton Webern and Igor Stravinsky. In later works, Mr. Boulez adopted the concept of aleatory, or controlled chance. (Yahoo! Wire -- Entertainment News)
We need music to survive Jun 6, 2009
In June 1940, French composer Olivier Messiaen was captured by the Germans and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. There, he finished a quartet for piano, cello, violin, and clarinet, and performed it, with three other imprisoned musicians, for the inmates and guards of that camp. (Yahoo News)
Japan's Inamori Foundation to Announce 25th Annual Kyoto Prize Laureates June 19 Apr 28, 2009
Prior laureates from this field have included the renowned composer and organist Olivier Messiaen; chance-music pioneer John Cage; aleatoric composer Witold Lutoslawski; avant garde music theorist and composer Iannis Xenakis; modernist composer Gyorgi Ligeti; and European early music conductor and cellist Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Each 2009 laureate will receive a diploma, a Kyoto Prize Medal of 20-karat gold, and a cash gift totaling 50 million yen (approximately US$500,000) per prize category... (Yahoo! Wire -- Entertainment News)
Spice and variety, and an acute sense of vocal colour Apr 20, 2009
e Fleming devoted half her concert to relatively recent songs by Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux. The three Dutilleux songs, which were written for Fleming, were so fresh that the 93-year-old composer is still orchestrating the fourth (entitled Le temps l'horloge), which Fleming said she will soon record. (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
Alex Ross: The reopening of Alice Tully Hall. Mar 9, 2009
Throughout the opening week of concerts, artists savored the emergence of sound from silence: Leon Fleisher gave a daringly meditative rendition of Bach s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue; David Robertson led the Juilliard Orchestra through the vast, still regions of Olivier Messiaen s From the Canyons to the Stars (premi. red at Tully in 1974); and, most strikingly, Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent drew a Sunday-evening audience about as far into the sacred realm of Bach s Mass in... (New Yorker)
