Preview: Messiaen Festival: Harawi/University of Chicago’s Fulton Hall

RECOOMMENDED

This 1945 song cycle, subtitled “Song of Love and Death,” is Messiaen’s homage to Debussy’s “Pelléas et Melisande” which is in turn Debussy’s nod to Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.” The theme is lovers who are only able to find fulfillment through death is here expressed through the Peruvian version of the legend, complete with folk music incorporated from indigenous Peruvians. One of the most fascinating aspects of Messiaen’s mystical perception was his ability to see specific colors through specific timbral combinations within music, a gift which he believed that we all had, and he attempted to make much of his music explicitly color specific. The intended colors “seen” through this music are dark, in keeping with such a somber story: black, purple and red, while green acts as punctuation in the story, representing the female lover and spring. Soprano Tony Arnold acts as the “grand dramatic soprano” that Messiaen specifies across these twelve songs while Jacob Greenberg takes on the massively virtuosic piano part in this free performance. Note that the evening ticketed performance (6:15pm, $5-$12) at the French Alliance of Chicago (810 N. Dearborn) that spotlights music of Debussy and Jolivet also includes Messiaen’s earliest piece incorporating birdsong, 1951’s “Le merle noir.” (Dennis Polkow)

October 9 at University of Chicago’s Fulton Hall, 1010 E. 59^th, 4th Floor, (773)702-8068, 12:15pm