Oliver Messiaen (1908–1992)

Olivier Messiaen was born in Avignon, France in 1908. As a young child he discovered an unusual ability; while "reading" a score of Gluck's Orfeo, he realized that he was hearing the sounds of the notes on the page. This discovery so excited him that from then on he requested gifts of musical scores rather than books or toys. Later, Messiaen was also struck by the realization that for him, music had "colours"; this phenomenon is known as synaesthesia, the rare ability to transcribe sound as color in one's imagination. Messiaen's music is largely constructed based on these "colours," especially in regard to harmony, and Messiaen often went to great lengths to describe the hues he perceived in sound. Many characteristic elements recur in all of Messiaen's music, including an avoidance of regular metre (which he considered "unnatural"), a fascination with birdsong (Messiaen became a well-respected ornithologist as a result of his transcriptions), and a unique conception of harmony as colour. Messiaen was also obsessed with the effort to meld the world of sound and perception with the realm of spirit and mystery. His devout Catholicism lent an unmistakable mysticism to all that he wrote, and his music is an unusual blend of effects with a programmatic intent. The expressive and exuberant song cycle Poèmes pour Mi displays another side of Messiaen: his passionate devotion to his wife, violinist and composer Claire Delbos, whom he married in 1932. Messiaen wrote the texts to the songs himself; "Mi" was his pet name for Delbos. The collection was composed in 1936/37.

Jules Massenet (1842–1912)

Jules Massenet was born in 1842 (three years before Gabriel Fauré), and died in 1912. His mother was his first teacher; he then studied at the Paris Conservatoire beginning at the age of ten. Massenet was a fluid and prolific composer, the leading writer of French opera in the late 19th century. Two works, Manon and Werther, remain in the general repertory. However, the dominance of German opera, and the dawn of modernism led to the neglect of French opera (and perhaps French music in general), if not outright disrespect. Massenet's legacy was hit hard; the fifth edition of Grove's Dictionary (1954) declared that his operas were fit only for a public "which regards music as an agreeable after-dinner entertainment". Things have not changed much – the current New Grove Dictionary of Opera states that, "It would be absurd to claim that [Massenet] was anything more than a second-rate composer; he nevertheless deserves to be seen... at least as a first-class second-rate one." Cléopâtre was Massenet's last opera, and was not produced until two years after the composer's death. The heroine's death scene is particularly affecting.

Henri Dutilleux (1916– )

Henri Dutilleux was born in Angers, France in 1916. His early studies were at the Douai Conservatory. He then went on to study at the Paris Conservatoire. Dutilleux was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1938; his studies in Italy were interrupted by the onset of the Second World War, in which he served as a medical orderly. In the post-war years he worked in Paris as a composer, teacher, and head of music production at French Radio (1945–63). Dutilleux has tended to repudiate the typical view that French music is essentially light and charming; he has been influenced more by such composers as Bartók, Stravinsky, and the members of the Second Viennese School (though he rejects the "dogma" associated with strict serialism). His music is also influenced by literature and art–particularly by Proust and Van Gogh–and is characterized by refined textures, complicated rhythms, and a tendency to build and reveal themes slowly. Le temps l'horloge was composed in 2006/07 as a joint commission by the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre National de France. It was written expressly for soprano Renée Fleming, who premiered the work in Japan. According to Dutilleux, "I constantly thought of her voice's character, of her power of lyrical expression."

Richard Strauss (1864–1949)

Richard Strauss was the most important German composer after Brahms and Wagner, and brought the musical language of the Romantic period into the modern era. Strauss was well read and well connected, an artist of the highest status who modeled himself as an artisan of music. He eschewed the elitism of his day, and dismissed the lofty ideals of Mahler and the younger Schoenberg – that music was a transcendental, metaphysical phenomenon – and declared that music could be nothing more than music. However, his music overflows with dramatic, extroverted brilliance (in the words of Glenn Gould, "ecstasy on demand") expressing meaning through a super-heightened emotional language. Although he is thought of today primarily as a composer of dense, post-Wagnerian operas and brilliant orchestral tone-poems, lieder occupied much of Strauss' attention; he wrote more than 200 songs. Some are among his earliest compositions, and are rooted firmly in the German Romantic tradition. The period after his marriage (to a singer) saw the creation of many of his best songs, including Verführung (1896), Freundliche Vision, and Winterweihe (both 1900). Ständchen and Zueignung are both earlier works, dating from 1885. Unlike most other lieder composers, Strauss did not conceive of opus numbers as song sets; rather, each song stands on its own. Strauss' focus on opera seems to have caused him to lose interest in lieder; he did not return to the genre again until 1918.

Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919)

Ruggero Leoncavallo was born in Naples in 1857. After studies in Bologna, he spent some years in Paris, where he lived a typical bohemian life, giving music lessons and playing the piano in cafés. An early Wagner enthusiast, Leoncavallo's focus changed when he saw a production of Mascagni's verismo opera (a term loosely meaning "true to life") Cavalleria rusticana. Leoncavallo's response, Pagliacci, is his only work to remain in the standard repertory. The success of Pagliacci gave brief life to many of Leoncavallo's other operas, among them Zazà, which enjoyed over 50 productions in the first twenty years of its existence, but is now only heard in occasional revivals. Leoncavallo began work on his version of La Bohème in 1892; it debuted in 1897, a year after Puccini's treatment of the same story. For a while the two operas existed side by side, but Puccini's version has become a standard of the repertoire while Leoncavallo's has been largely forgotten, apart from a few excerpted arias. Incidentally, Leoncavallo was a gifted librettist who contributed texts for many other composers, including the book for Puccini's Manon Lescaut. He died in Tuscany in 1919.

Umberto Giordano (1867–1948)

Umberto Giordano was born in Foggia, Italy in 1867. While still a student at the Naples Conservatory, Giodano submitted a score for the Sonzogno competition of 1889. He placed 6th of 73 (the winner was Mascagni for Cavalleria rusticana); this result led to a commission for a full-length opera (Mala vita, 1892) which began Giordano's career. Many of his operas enjoyed immediate success, and a few are still in the repertory. Giordano was a skilled melodist who incorporated many idioms of local folk music into his scores. Siberia, loosely based on Tolstoy's novel Resurrection, was Giordano's personal favorite, and had the notable distinction of being presented at the Paris Opéra (where it received the approval of Fauré). Giordano died in 1948.

Riccardo Zandonai (1883–1944)

Riccardo Zandonai was born in Sacco di Rovereto, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1883. A passionate nationalist, his irredentist sympathies frequently put him on the wrong side of the governing powers of the day. Zandonai studied with Mascagni at the Liceo Musicale, completing a nine-year course of studies in only three. The early success of Il grillo del focolare led the influential Giulio Ricordi to consider Zandonai the natural successor to Puccini. Although Zandonai had significant melodic gifts, his output was uneven, and his music can sound somewhat superficial and affected. Conchita was premiered in 1911, and is based on a text that was rejected by Puccini. Upon Puccini's death, Zandonai was considered a candidate to complete the unfinished Turandot, a task eventually given to Franco Alfano. Zandonai spent the last decade of his life as director of the conservatory in Pesaro, where he had been a student. He died in 1944, a day after learning that Rome had been liberated by Allied forces.

Programme notes ©2009 by Brian Mix, a Vancouver cellist and writer.