One of the dubious pleasures of the internet age is the message board, where we give shape to all our half-baked thoughts and well-formed prejudices. Posts to the BBC Radio 3 board are no exception, ranging from the interesting and erudite to the frankly infantile. Occasionally it all becomes overheated and the moderators have to shut down the offending threads.
Caught up in this cat's cradle of debate and denunciation are some recurring themes that are alternately amusing and depressing. Contemporary music is one of the most divisive topics - some people still think The Rite of Spring is way too 'modern' for them - with Olivier Messiaen attracting plenty of criticism as well. One regular poster - a self-confessed Francophobe - has attacked OM on several occasions. In his latest broadside - entitled 'And they wonder why' - he maintains 'there's more musicality in a pig's oink', adding that an innocent listener who heard Messiaen for the first tme would be put off classical music for ever.
I find these reactions very dispiriting indeed, not just because I admire much of Messiaen's work but because I think such opinions are misguided. I heard a radio performance of Turangalila many moons ago and was instantly hooked. How anyone could dismiss or dislike this glorious score is beyond me, although I will admit some of Messian's other pieces - Chronochromie, for instance - have yet to work their magic on me. But I won't stop trying.
And that's the crux of the matter; surely one needs to persevere with 'difficult' music, something many luiisteners aren't prepared to do. I have musical blind spots - I'm sure we all do - but in the spirit of adventure I will listen to anything at least once. A chance encounter - as with Turangalila - can open up an entire musical universe, as yet undetected. I suppose it could frighten some listeneres away but I like to think there are more winners than losers here.
I am also puzzled by the virulence of other attacks on Messiaen, which often refer to his religious beliefs. As an agnostic myself I simply cannot understand how the composer's spiritual certainties can seem so offensive to some. But then perhaps it is precisely those qualities, so eloquently expressed in his music, that so annoy the nay-sayers.
Coincidentally one of my very favourite Messiaen discs is The Nativity of Our Lord, played on the organ of Westminster Cathedral by Simon Preston. As I listen to it tonight I'm delighted to celebrate Messiaen's abundance of talent; I also commend Radio 3, DG and all those concert planners who have done the same in this centenary year.
Merry Christmas to you all and best wishes for 2009.
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I understand any neophyte who listens to M. and doesn't get it, or finds it odd. It's almost impossible to find his music ugly though (just a few pieces could be mistaken for ugly by very conservative/un-curious ears). But this kind of damnation of Messiaen is just a sign of a mind that's shut before the evidence in, and one that won't open to allow change for the love of the world. Working my ways through the big Messiaen boxes that have been released this year, and having heard a mini-Messiaen festival of the MPhil over the last four weeks, I get only drawn closer and closer to the composer -- admiration turns to love.
ReplyDeleteLove isn't what the relatively conservative Munich audience has shown Messiaen yet, but at least they [the "subscription holder types] didn't run out of the concerts. :-) "Et Exspecto..." (Z.Mehta) even got a good deal of warm applause.