大象传媒

Presented by Christopher Cook.

Recorded at the Barbican, London on 5th November.

Two twentieth century masterpieces meet in this concert of contrasts, performed by an orchestra and chorus famous for their concerts of contemporary music and a first-rate pair of soloists, all under the masterful leadership of conductor David Robertson.

Ten movements, 2,683 bars, two soloists and an orchestra of over one hundred players - that is how Olivier Messiaen responded when the conductor Serge Koussevitsky commissioned him to 'write the work you want to, in the style you want, as long as you want, with the instrumental formation you want.' The Turangalila Symphony is an epic masterpiece that Messiaen described as a 'song of love, hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death.' It is preceded by another Koussevitsky commission - Stravinsky's ritualistic Symphony of Psalms. He had been asked to write something 'popular' for orchestra without chorus. Instead, he wrote a deeply devotional sacred piece heavily featuring a choir and which excludes violins, violas and clarinets from the orchestration.

The 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra's American Principal Guest Conductor David Robertson marshals the huge forces in these two works written for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Recorded at the Barbican on 5th November, the real fireworks were not in the sky overhead but in the concert hall below.

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms
Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony

Nicolas Hodges (piano)
Cynthia Millar (ondes martenot)
大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra
大象传媒 Symphony Chorus
David Robertson (conductor).