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Thursday / October 2 / 7:30 pm
Dame Gillian Weir, organ
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

Olivier Messiaen is considered by many to have been the most significant composer for the organ since J.S. Bach. For more than half a century he dominated the world of the organ, and in this centenary year of his birth his genius is being celebrated all over the world. He was born in Avignon, the son of Cécile Sauvage, a poet, and Pierre Messiaen, known for his translations of Shakespeare. Both parents contributed to his love of drama, emotion and fantasy, set within the framework of the great drama of Christianity. When only seven he entered the Paris conservatoire as a pupil of Dukas and Dupré, carrying off a host of prizes, and in 1942 he returned as Professor. From 1931 until his death he was organist at the Parish church of La Trinité, improvising and honing his experimental rhythmic and harmonic techniques in the service of the Catholic Church.

The liturgy of the Mass and of the Church's year has inspired some of our greatest music. The meaning behind the rituals and sacraments, and the beauty of the words that celebrate them, have led to a treasury of music stretching from the perfection of Gregorian chant to the intricacies of polyphony, and through quasi-operatic Romantic drama to the myriad styles of the past century. The most remarkable composers in expounding these mysteries have been J.S. Bach and Messiaen. Bach, the devout Lutheran, used his mastery of counterpoint to express his faith; Messiaen, the fervent Catholic, invented a new musical language and painted vivid tone-pictures to convey his Church's truths. His music is extravagantly dramatic, recalling the metaphysical poets such as John Donne ("Batter my heart, three-personed God!"). Bach's music, although more formal, is no less expressive.

The third part of Bach's Clavier-Übung, a monumental set of keyboard pieces, consists of 21 chorale preludes, framed by a prelude and fugue. It attempts to translate the ideas of the Lutheran catechism into musical terms and is sometimes called a Lutheran Mass. The further collection known as The Eighteen Chorales, collected by Bach in the last three years of his life, comments on the Church's year. Today's performance of Messiaen's seminal work Messe de la Pentecôte, which represents a synthesis of his rhythmic techniques, harmonic language and his use of bird-song, water-drops, impressionistic use of color, Hindu and Greek rhythms and a host of our trademarks, is contrasted with pieces by Bach and another great French composer, Couperin, which comment on the same ideas, providing a fascinating contrast in style. Pentecost (Whitsunday) is the time in the Church's year when the Holy Spirit is said to have appeared to the disciples of Jesus in the form of flames of fire, as they were gathered together.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
b. 1685 in Eisenach
d. 1750 in Leipzig

Komm, heiliger Geist, Schöpfer (The Eighteen Chorales)
The Holy Spirit is invoked in a magnificent outburst of energy, decorating the ancient plainsong Veni Creator.

OLIVIER MESSIAEN
b. 1908 in Avignon
d. 1992 in Paris

Introit: The tongues of fire "Tongues of fire sat upon each of them” (Acts of the Apostles)
Messiaen presents the darting flames in spectacular jagged rhythms, over an angular melody, played on a clangorous reed stop. Messiaen was a synaesthete, able to see specific colors in sound, and his painterly techniques, both in terms of colors/tone-colors and as regards form are much in evidence in the Messe.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Dies sind die heiligen zehn Gebot (Clavier-Übung, BWV 678)
"These are the holy ten Commandments" is one of Bach's most sublime preludes. It illustrates what is known as The Summary of the Law: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart … and thy neighbour as thyself; on these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” The chorale melody is heard in canon—two voices, with two accompanying voices interwoven. Thus: the Commandments in one hand and the Law and the Prophets in the other, intertwined in a mood of serene authority.

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Offertoire: Things visible and invisible
For the Offertory, Messiaen chooses a phrase from the Creed, expressing another basic tenet of belief. He wrote that everything was expressed in the words “I believe in things visible and invisible,” “everything from protons to galaxies, the spiritual world and the material world, grace and sin, birds, water the Beast of the Apocalypse. …” All these and more are heard in this extraordinary meditation. The Beast appears as a repeated intermittent growling low note. Water drops plop from a great height onto the ground. Light and dark are depicted. Mystery is everywhere.

FRANÇOIS COUPERIN
b. 1668 in Paris
d. 1733 in Paris

Dialogue sur la Voix humaine (Messe pour les Couvents)
The Agnus Dei is represented by this innocent solo for the voix humaine: “Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.”

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam (Clavier-Übung, BWV 684)
Bach used "Christ our Lord to Jordan Came" to illustrate the sacrament of Baptism, when the gifts of the Spirit are bestowed. The rippling waters of the river Jordan flow serenely in the left hand, while the right hand voice outlines the shape of a cross, such as would be marked on the head of the baptised person.

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Consécration: The giving of Wisdom
“The Holy Spirit shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (St. John)
At the moment of Consecration, Messiaen reminds us of the gifts given at Baptism. There are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; Messiaen writes of our need for the gift of Wisdom, to understand the sacred mysteries. There are two melodies, one a theme on the vividly colored clarion heard in the Introit, with mysterious chords coloring each note, and the other one imitating the plainsong Alleluia for Whitsunday. They are heard in alternation.

FRANÇOIS COUPERIN

Elevation: Récit de tierce en taille (Messe pour les Couvents)
For Couperin, the moment of Consecration is one of profound beauty and stillness.

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Communion: The birds and the springs
“O all ye waters that be above the heavens, bless ye the Lord; O all ye fowls of the air, bless ye the Lord!” (Song of the Three Holy Children)
It is the practice to recite after the Communion the Song of the Three Holy Children, who had been thrown into a burning fiery furnace but walked serenely into the flames singing a song in which they call on all creation to join with them in praising God. One verse is addressed to water, another to the birds. The movement begins deep in the shadows of a wood. A bird calls, its wings flutter as it shoots through the leaves. Fountains murmur and sigh, the cuckoo and the nightingale sing. Then the blackbird is heard against a background of water drops. The piece ends with the highest note possible on the organ, set against its lowest—symbolic that God's love encompasses all of nature.

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Sortie: The Wind of the Spirit
A virtuosic toccata describes the Wind that came to the Apostles as they sat in the Upper Room - the tempest that represents "the irresistible power of spiritual life". The middle section of this last movement has the sound of larks chattering, high above two melodies (representing Time) that flow in opposite directions. The larks are the birds that fly highest and thus best represent freedom, and whose soaring vocalise is the symbol of the plainsong Alleluia. They fly in rapturous arabesques, swooping between heaven and earth, before the Wind returns with all its force in a brilliant Coda that ends the Mass.

FRANZ LISZT
b. 1811 in Raiding, Hungary
d. 1886 in Bayreuth, Bavaria
St Francis Walking on the Waves
arr. Lionel Rogg

Liszt wrote his two UFranciscan LegendsU in 1863—St. Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds and St. Francis of Paola walking on the waves were inspired by events in the lives of Liszt’s two patron saints. Liszt frequently arranged his piano music for organ and we know that Saint-Saëns played the first Legend on the organ during Liszt’s time. Encouraged by this, the Swiss organist and composer, Lionel Rogg, has transcribed the latter.

The late John Ogdon once described the ideal piano sonority for this piece as “an enthroned, golden sound, orchestral and organ-like,” and the depth and sonority of an organ enhance the drama of the story. St. Francis of Paola was born in Calabria in 1416—he founded his own order and was with Louis XI at the time of his death in 1482. The legend tells how St. Francis sought to cross the Straits of Messina but was unable to find room in the boat. The ferryman rebuffed him by saying, “If he is a saint, let him walk on the water.” Spreading his cloak on the seas, St. Francis launched himself onto the waves, and was brought safely to the other side by his faith, though buffeted by thunderous waves and flashing lighting. Liszt may have been inspired by a sketch of the miracle by Steinle, a present from Princess Wittgenstein. Gustave Doré had made him a gift of an engraving on the same subject.

JEAN LANGLAIS
b. 1907 in La Fontenelle
d. 1991 in Paris

Variations on a Theme of Frescobaldi
Jean Langlais, of Breton origin and blind from the age of two, was a student of André Marchal, Marcel Dupré and Paul Dukas. The Variations comprise the seventh piece from his Hommage à Frescobaldi, dedicated to Dupré; it is a charming miniature, witty and filled with piquant colors.

FLOR PEETERS
b. 1903 in Tielen, Belgium
d. 1986 in Antwerp

Toccata, Fugue, and Hymn on Ave Maris Stella
Baron Peeters (he was ennobled by the King of Belgians when he retired as director of the Antwerp Conservatoire) was born in Tielen, a small Flemish village near Antwerp. The youngest of eleven children he was a prodigy, winning a host of prizes at the Lemmens institute and going on to worldwide acclaim as performer, composer and pedagogue. He was organist at St. Rombout Cathedral in Mechelen for sixty years. Peeters’ virtuosic work was dedicated to his friend Charles Tournemire, Franck’s successor at Ste-Clotilde in Paris.

SERGEI SLONIMSKY
b. 1932 in Leningrad

Toccata

GEORGY MUSHEL'
b. 1909 in Tambov
d. 1989 in Tashkent

Toccata
Nephew of the famous Russian-American musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, Sergei is one of the leading contemporary Russian composers. He was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and teaches at the Conservatoire there. He has written thirteen symphonies, six operas, and a ballet as well as smaller pieces. His toccata reflects his interest in Russian folk music and its darker writers such as Dostoevsky; one can imagine a horde or Cossacks in a wild dance, full of foot-stamping and great leaps.

Mushel is a pianist and composer who taught at the Conservatoire in the remote region of Tashkent in Uzbekistan. The Toccata comes from a Suite on Uzbek folk melodies. If the Slonimsky work conjures up savage dancers, in the Mushel they mount their steeds and ride off furiously, exhilarated by its driving, pounding rhythm.

MARCEL LANQUETUIT
b. 1894
d. 1985

Toccata
Marcel Lanquetuit’s dazzling Toccata is a musical Baked Alaska, ending our musical banquet with a shower of sparks. Lanquetuit was organist of the Cathedral of Rouen, and wrote this Toccata in 1926 before leaving for a concert tour of the USA. He was a particularly fine improviser. The piece is dedicated to Widor.