MESSIAEN IN CRISIS (4/2/2011)

Life experiences often have a way of preparing one for certain events.   Such was the case when I attended a performance by soprano Lucy Shelton and pianist Cristina Stanescu of Olivier Messiaen's song cycle Harawi: Chant d'amours et de mort at the Italian Academy of Columbia University.  I have been reading some of the work of Peruvian author Mario Vargas Lhoso which sometimes concerns conflicts between the modern world, historical Spanish settlers in Peru and indigenous peoples.  I should also mention that for several years I was involved in teaching a course involving the Peruvian Amazon.  On the way to the concert I visited an exhibition of work by surrealist artist Salvador Dali at the Time-Warner Center at Columbus Circle and had been reading, off and on, a book dealing with cultural life in Paris during the heyday of the surrealists. 

So, quite naturally, I would attend a concert that engaged both of these topics in vivid ways. At a pre-concert lecture on Messiaen and the song cycle it was noted that the ideas derived from Peruvian legends and music embedded in this cycle.  Indeed, the title "Harawi" is Quechuan (related to the Peruvian love song genre yaravi) and the object of the poet's expression is an Andean girl named Piroutcha.  Messiaen wrote the poetry for the cycle invoking the traits of both surrealist and symbolist poets.

But the Peruvian and surrealist elements in the cycle go far beyond style.  They delve into the very substance of the subject Messiaen is concerned with.  When Messiaen composed this cycle he was in a time of crisis.  His wife was suffering from a severely debilitating illness of the brain and had to be committed to a hospital.  The poetry reflects Messiaen's grief over the inevitable loss of this love of his life.  To complicate things, one of this students, the brilliant pianist Yvonne Loriod, was assisting him in lots of daily activities as he juggled composing, performing (mostly as a church organist where he dutifully dispatched his duties every week), teaching, and being attentive to his ailing wife.  There relationship was turning into a deep, romantic attachment that would result both in eventual marriage and a lifelong artistic partnership.  

As an ardent Roman Catholic, the illness of his wife, along with the conflict he felt about his growing ardor for Ms. Loriod doubtless led the always introspective to questionings of his religious beliefs and faith, although there is never a question of his devotion to his faith.   It was in this time of personal turmoil that Harawi was composed.

This very demanding song cycle has to be placed right up with Schubert's Die schoene Muellerin and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde in terms of emotional scope and musical range.  As Messiaen wrote he poetry and music there is a Wagnerian unity throughout.  The image-drenched score both conveys various pictorialisms in the poetry with deep emotion.   A great example of this is song three, "Montagnes" ("Mountains") where the harshness of the forbiddingly high landscape of the Andes is conveyed through hard piano tones coupled with incisive rhythms. This  unforgiving setting is viewed as a place of pilgrimage demanded of the faithful that leads to an otherwise unattainable mystical experience.  

In the song "Adieu," the piano interludes and postlude blatantly reveal the inner turmoil of the poet, who is of course, Messiaen.   

The use of Quechuan phrases in a number of of the songs struck me as often evoking primeval impulses through reaching back into an ancient language.   The words also, to me, had an affinity with Buddhist chant (Repetition planetaire:  "mapa, nama, lila, mika, pampahika").

Though a demanding work for performers and listeners, the truth revealed in Harawi requires such a daunting journey. Love has a price.