Carnegie Hall Preview No. 1

On May 11, the Milwaukee Symphony will play its first concert in Carnegie Hall in New York in many years. Music director Edo de Waart chose some interesting and challenging repertoire for Carnegie:  Olivier Messiaen’s Les offrandes oubliées, Debussy’s La mer, and Qigang Chen’s Iris dévoilée.

Close ties connect the composers. By age 10, the sensitive and artistic Messiaen (1908-1992) fell under the spell of Debussy’s (1862-1918) music, particularly the dreamy, mysterious opera, Pelléas et Mélisande. Messiaen entered the Paris Conservatory at age 11 and went on to become one of the most famous composers in the world. Chen, born in Shanghai in 1951, went to France to study with Messiaen in 1984, and worked with him until 1988. Chen was Messiaen’s last student. Chen has lived in France ever since and became a French citizen in 1992.

At its regular programs in Milwaukee this weekend and next, the MSO will cover all the New York repertoire. At 8 p.m. on May 4 and 5, de Waart will lead the orchestra in Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 and Chen’s Iris dévoilée (“Iris unveiled“). This weekend — 11:15 a.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 27-28 — Messiaen and Debussy will share the program with Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6.

Messiaen was a dedicated Catholic of the mystical sort, and most of his music expresses that faith. Les offrandes oubliées (The forgotten offerings), composed in 1930, just after Messiaen finished his conservatory studies, is no exception. This prose poem appears in the score as a preface to the 13-minute piece:

“Arms outstretched, afflicted unto death, you shed your blood on the cross. We have forgotten, sweet Jesus, how you love us. Driven onward by madness and forked tongues, in breathless, uncontrolled, and headlong flight, we have fallen into sin like a bottomless pit. It is here to be found, the unsullied table, the source of charitability, the feast of the poor, the well of holy sympathy which is to us the very bread of life and love. We have forgotten, sweet Jesus, how you love us.”

The first part, a meditation on the crucified Christ, unfolds in a halo of high, ambiguous harmony. Time almost stands still, but not quite; a chant-like melody winds through the mist. Time accelerates madly in the riotous, pounding middle section, which brings to mind Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain or the sacrifice scene from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Messiaen here paints a scene of man’s headlong rush into sin. The third section portrays the redemptive power of the Eucharist. The chant theme returns, low and heavy, like a hangover after a bacchanal. It vanishes when the high harmonies return, this time more or less on their own. Time stands still in the stained-glass glow of an unchanging paradise of grace.

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because the MSO played this piece in May of 2009, under guest conductor Pietari Inkinen. But Messiaen is a rarity at the MSO; Debussy, on the other hand, is a frequent visitor to Marcus Center Uihlein Hall.

We all know La Mer, but it’s worth noting that the 24-minute work, in three movements, was among the earliest of painterly impressions in program music. Unlike the tone poems of Richard Strauss, for example, La Mer tells no story and has no hero. Debussy simply suggests the sway and crest and spray of waves, the tones of sea and sky, the play of wind and waves in an ingenious outpouring of musical colors, textures, harmonies and ever-evolving themes.

Debussy composed it between 1903 and 1905 and revised it in 1909. By the way, Debussy occupied the center of a big scandal in Paris as he wrote La Mer. He had left his wife for the singer Emma Bardac and lived openly with her. In those days, composers could be celebrities, and Debussy was a juicy one. None of that shows up in this piece in any way.

What does the sea — or music — care for our petty scandals?

How Do I Get to Carnegie Hall? I’m going to New York with the MSO, and you can, too. Follow this link to find out how to join the entourage.

Tickets and Info: If you can’t make it to Carnegie, hear the music in Milwaukee. (This week’s program: 11:15 a.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday, April Marcus Center Uihlein Hall.) The MSO is making it easy for you, by throwing a $25 Carnegie Preview Sale, for both this weekend and May 4-5. Click on the link above or call the MSO ticket line, 414 291-7605 for details. Tickets are also on sale at the Marcus Center box office, 414 273-7206.

More Carnegie Info: The Milwaukee Symphony’s New York concert is part of the Spring for Music Series, which is bringing six American orchestras to New York in one week.