Remembrance of Things Past: Turning Pages for Messiaen

Yvonne Loriod and Olivier Messiaen sign autographs at the Cleveland Museum of Art

There are some events that you remember for the rest of your life. One of those occurred for me almost exactly 30 years ago, October 13, 1978, when Olivier Messiaen and his wife Yvonne Loriod played a concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  I was living on Long Island at the time, but my friend Bruce Shewitz, who was working in the Musical Arts Department of the museum at the time, asked me if I wanted to come back for the concert.  Not only that, would I be interested in turning pages for the major work on the second half of the program, Messiaen’s “Visions de l’Amen” for two pianos, which Messiaen and Loriod would perform together.  Loriod played Debussy and solo Messiaen (excerpts from “Vingt regards”) on the first half.

Bruce turned for Loriod; I turned for Messiaen.  We met briefly prior to the beginning of the concert, Messiaen showed me his tattered score of “Visions.”  He did not speak English, and my French was rudimentary at best.  But he was cordial.

The performance went off without a hitch, despite my terror of making a mistake.  I confess that during the last movement I became lost in the very repetitive music, but the composer carried on. (It was a work that I had heard before, but I had never seen the score before.)  About midway through the performance of the 45-minute work, I looked down at the piano keyboard and saw smudges on the keys which I almost immediately determined to be blood.  Messiaen had cut himself on the keyboard while he was playing.  But he didn’t miss a note.

After the concert, we were in the green room behind the stage, and the composer disappeared.  Karel Paukert, Curator of Music and host of the event, went looking for Messiaen and found him, with a damp paper towel, back out on the stage cleaning the blood off the piano keys.  Messiaen’s comment was, “It’s a good thing my wife didn’t see it, because she would have stopped the performance.”  Lucky for all of us.

After the backstage congratulations and greetings (and clean-up), Messiaen and Loriod spent time in the museum lobby signing autographs.  He signed my program, “with thanks to the page turner.”  There were pictures taken, which you see above.  The Messiaens are seated with their backs to the camera.  I am at the far right, with the light-colored suit (and considerably more hair than I have today).  Bruce is to my left.  Karel Paukert is kneeling in front of Loriod and in the center is Paukert’s (now former) wife Noriko.  The only other person I recognize in the picture is (I think) the organ builder Charles Ruggles (with the bald head and beard.)

It seems hard to believe that this was thirty years ago, for Messiaen’s 70th birthday tribute.  This year we celebrate his 100th anniversary.  On November 2nd, I’ll be playing a recital at my church (Euclid Avenue Congregational Church in Cleveland) including three of Messiaen’s more austere organ works in his memory and honor: Apparition de l’Église Éternelle, Monodie, and Chants d’oiseaux (from Livre d’Orgue).

Parade the Circle photos posted

I have posted my Parade the Circle photos from last Saturday’s event on flickr.com. You can view them here.

My cultural weekend

Two amazing musical events this past weekend:

On Saturday afternoon I went to the Metropolitan Opera’s high-definition video broadcast of Bellini’s I Puritani at the Regal Cinemas at Severance Center in Cleveland Heights. The brilliant Russian soprano Anna Netrebko sang the role of Elvira, and the young American tenor Eric Cutler was Arturo. (Don’t even ask about the plot—essentially there is none, and whatever story line exists solely for the purpose of beautiful music and virtuosic singing.)

Technically, the broadcast was astonishing. The video was extremely clear and the sound caught the ambiance of the Metropolitan Opera house itself. In many ways it was better than being in the house, because it was possible to see the singers up close and the sound was clear and balanced. (For the $18.00 I paid for the ticket on Saturday, at the Met I would have been up in the Family Circle, a half mile away, like watching a puppet show.) There were aspects of the usual Saturday afternoon radio broadcast, with the radio host Margaret Juntwait announcing and retired soprano Beverly Sills offering “color commentary” about the opera. (I later confirmed that the radio broadcast carried the same commentary, and there was none of the usual synopsis of the opera plot, which must have made a lot of listeners quite confused.)

The theater at Severance was about three-quarters full, mostly gray hairs (did they bus them in from Judson Manor?) I felt like I was the youngest one there. But who cares who was there; it seems like a successful crowd, and I hope that the Met continues the series next season. I’ll be attending the next video broadcast at Severance next Saturday of Tan Dun’s new opera, The First Emperor, starring Placido Domingo.

Yesterday afternoon the Cleveland Museum of Art sponsored a recital by the Swiss organist Guy Bovet at St. John’s Cathedral downtown. It’s part of the museum’s Viva and Gala Around Town, presenting concerts and and other events in venues all over Cleveland while the museum’s Gartner Auditorium is out of commission for renovation. Bovet played brilliantly, and he chose exactly the kind of brainy and eclectic program that I love: not a note of Bach or Reger to be heard. Instead, he played a transcription of Liszt’s tone poem “Orpheus,” and his own transcription of Ravel’s “Mother Goose” suite. He also played two of his own original compositions, and two major works by the French composer Jehan Alain, “Le jardin suspendu” and “Trois Danses.” The dances are not played often: difficult, extraordinarily complex rhythmically. Bovet’s performance was persuasive. All through the recital he used the cathedral’s 1948 Holtkamp organ with great imagination (I’ve played it, and it’s an eccentric instrument. It has some beautiful sounds, but it’s a bit unusual in its specification.) The cathedral was almost full: bravo to all concerned.

Parade the Circle 2006

Last Saturday was Parade the Circle in University Circle. It’s one of my favorite summer-in-Cleveland events. The weather started out on the cool side with a brisk breeze, but it warmed up during the day, and there was a large crowd. I’ve posted my pictures to Flickr.