hr-Sinfonieorchester

The „Turangalîla Symphony“: The composer described this work, which is everything but a conventional symphony, as „a love song“ and „an hymn to joy“. Since its premiere in 1949, this monumental yet beguiling music has lost none of its impact and still takes listeners’ breath away.

Deadly, contradictory, heightened to ecstasy: this love, symbolized by Tristan and Isolde's love potion, is what Messiaen has set to music here. „›Turangalîla‹ is emphatically excessive: an excess of duration, color, rhythm, and emotion,“ says Music Director Alain Altinoglu. „I admire Messiaen’s absolute freedom, his rejection of traditional structures, and his ability to create a language in which the sacred, love, and time flow together.“ Central to this sound world is the Ondes Martenot, invented 100 years ago, an early electronic musical instrument capable of producing spherical, bird-like, and siren-like sounds. Equally central is the highly complex piano part, for which Messiaen expert Pierre-Laurent Aimard is the soloist. Both the pianist and Altinoglu were trained at the Paris Conservatory, where their teachers came from Messiaen’s immediate circle – they know this music from the inside. „The effect of the ›Turangalîla Symphony‹ on the audience,“ says Alain Altinoglu, „is often physical, almost sensual.“ (hr-Sinfonieorchester)