David Robertson, director of conducting studies, will lead the Juilliard Orchestra, Juilliard pianist Tengku Irfan, and ondes martenot player Cynthia Millar in Messiaen’s rarely performed Turangalîla-Symphonie on Friday, May 3, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in David Geffen Hall.
Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie was commissioned by Serge Koussevitsky for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Leonard Bernstein conducted the premiere in Boston on December 2, 1949. The title of the work is derived from two Sanskrit words: Turanga means “time” or the movement of time; Lîla signifies life, movement, creation, and destruction on a cosmic scale, and most importantly, love. Messiaen described Turangalîla as a “hymn to joy” and “a song of love.”
Tickets are $30 ($15 for full-time students with a valid ID) and available at juilliard.edu/calendar.
Photo by Jennifer Taylor.
