Messiaen's Muses Keyboard Festival programme

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Welcome to our annual keyboard festival. This year we celebrate one of the most inspirational musical figures of the 20th century, French composer Olivier Messiaen.

The centrepiece of the festival is an all-day gala of music reflecting time, place and the musical world of birds. Performed by students from the Royal College of Music’s internationally acclaimed Keyboard Faculty, the day will feature Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux alongside other keyboard music. Other events include several concerts and a masterclass with one of the foremost interpreters of Messian’s music, pianist Michel Béroff.

I very much look forward to seeing you at the following events. You can also watch Oiseaux exotiques streamed live on Sunday 8 March at www.rcm.ac.uk/live.

Professor Vanessa Latarche Head of Keyboard, RCM, London Messiaen’s Muses Keyboard Festival is supported by John Ward.

Friday 6 March Piano Masterclass with Michael Béroff

2.00pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

Belle Shenkman International Masterclass Free but tickets required

Sunday 8 March Oiseaux exotiques

12.00pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

Free no tickets required

Monday 9 March Chants de terre et de ciel Couleurs et mystères

1.05pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

6.00pm | West Parry Room

Free but tickets required

Tuesday 10 March Visions de l’Amen

1.05pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

Free but tickets required

Messiaen’s Muses keyboard festival is supported by John Ward 1

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Friday 6 March, 2.00pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

Piano Masterclass with Michel Béroff Imma Setiadi piano Messiaen Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus:

no 4 Regard de la Vierge no 8 Regard des hauteurs Selim Mazari piano Messiaen La bouscarle from Catalogue d’oiseaux Muqiao Zhou piano Messiaen Préludes: nos 2, 5 and 8

Michel Béroff The French pianist and conductor Michel Béroff was trained at the Nancy Conservatory, winning the First Prize (1962) and Prize of Excellence (1963). He completed his studies at the Paris Conservatory (CNSM) with Yvonne Loriod, where he immediately stood out as one of the best pianists, winning the First Prize in 1966. In 1967 he made his Paris recital debut and won First Prize at the first Olivier Messiaen International Piano Competition. He has since been considered one of the most outstanding interpreters of Messiaen’s music.

Béroff has played under the direction of such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Christoph von Dohnányi, Antal Doráti, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Gielen, Eliahu Inbal, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Mstislav Rostropovich, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Georg Solti, Michael Tilson Thomas, and many others.

As a recitalist and a chamber musician, Béroff has been very active playing with Pierre Amoyal, Martha Argerich, Jean-Philippe Collard, Augustin Dumay, Lynn Harrell and Barbara Hendricks, amongst others.

An exclusive EMI artist for over 20 years, Michel Béroff has published more than 50 recordings; among them, the complete works for piano and orchestra of Liszt, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, conducted by Ozawa and Masur. He has also recorded works by Bartók, Brahms, Debussy, Messiaen and Schumann.

Belle Shenkman International Masterclass

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Sunday 8 March, 12.00pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall Oiseaux exotiques ‘For me the only real music has always existed in the sounds of nature... The harmony of wind in trees, the rhythm of waves on the sea, the timbre of the raindrops, of breaking branches, of stones stuck together, the different cries of animals are the true music as far as I am concerned.’

Olivier Messiaen In his Catalogue d’oiseaux Messiaen not only depicts birdsong but places the many species of birds in the context of their natural habitat, exploring themes such as the time of day, landscape and often a specific geographical setting.

Today we will enjoy a feast of nature in music as eight of the works from Catalogue d’oiseaux are performed, each one followed by a group of pieces which share a common theme with the Messiaen piece just heard. At the end of each group we hear one or more bird pieces from a wide range of composers.

Morning

12.00pm

In Le loriot (golden oriole) a dawn chorus gathers momentum as a multitude of birds welcome the day. The piece takes us from dawn to the bright sun of midday and we follow it with other, widely contrasting musical depictions of dawn and morning.

Messiaen Le loriot from ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’

Christine Cheng Grieg Morning Mood from ‘Peer Gynt Suite’

Jia Ying Chan &

Rachel Tang Debussy De l’aube à midi sur la mer from ‘La mer’

Yaoying Wang & Channarong Jantararat Ravel Alborada del gracioso from ‘Miroirs’ Sisi Chen Elgar (arr Bothwell Thompson) Chanson de matin op 15 no 2 Chi-Hoi Cheung Ravel (arr Vyacheslav Gryaznov) Lever du jour from Lynette Yeo & ‘Daphnis et Chloé Suite no 2’

Bertram Wee Griffes The White Peacock from ‘Roman Sketches op 7’ Xiyuan Sun Couperin Le gazoüillement from ‘6th Ordre’ Anhad Arora† Rameau Le rappel des oiseaux Edyta Lajdorf

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†

indicates RCM Junior Department musician

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Landscape

12.55pm

The startlingly vivid impression of jagged cliffs which opens Le merle bleu (blue rock thrush) provides the inspiration for a collection of pieces suggesting different landscapes.

Messiaen Le merle bleu from ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’ Annabelle Park Ravel La vallée des cloches from ‘Miroirs’ Simon Carrey Liszt Paysage from ‘Etudes d’exécution transcendante’ Grigoris Ioannou Graham Lynch Admiring Yoro Waterfall Yan Lam Lai Debussy Des pas sur la neige from ‘Préludes Book 1’ Tomoka Kan† Gareth Farr The Horizon from ‘Owhiro Bay’ Conor Murphy† Glinka/Balakirev The Lark Andrew Yiangou

INTERVAL Spain

2.10pm

Le traquet stapazin (black-eared wheatear) is set in the Catalan area of southern France, very close to the Spanish border. Both its setting and its depiction of the hot sun inspire a group of pieces which look south and explore the intense flavours of Spanish piano music.

Messiaen Le traquet stapazin from ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’

Phoebe Ng De Falla Danza del molinero from ‘The Three-Cornered Hat’ Armin Coralic Mompou Cançon i danses no 6 David Serrano Albéniz El Puerto from ‘Iberia’ Kenny Salazar Debussy La puerta del vino from ‘Préludes Book 2’ Miguel Mateus Granados The Maiden and the Nightingale from ‘Goyescas’ Theresa Yu

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Calm Night

2.50pm

L’alouette lulu (woodlark) is set during a still night represented by a recurring motif – a calm progression of chords folding into B flat major. Then we hear other composers’ portrayals of a similarly peaceful or benign night time.

Messiaen L’alouette lulu from ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’ Chen Zhang Debussy (arr A Caplet) Les parfums de la nuit from Vera Fonte & ‘Images pour orchestre’ Jose Francisco Quintas Vilar Lyapunov Rêverie du soir Yukina Murase Liszt Harmonies du soir from ‘Etudes Ilya Kondratev d’exécution transcendante’ Thelonius Monk/Oscar Peterson Round Midnight Tolga Atalay Ün Fauré Nocturne no 3 in A flat major op 33 no 3

Irena Radic Ravel Oiseaux tristes from ‘Miroirs’ Aleksandar Djermanovic

WATER

3.45pm

After a strikingly violent opening, La bouscarle (bush warbler) goes on to contain river motifs and passages of hypnotic beauty which portray reflections in the water.

We continue with Debussy’s famous depiction of the same phenomenon and explore how water has long been a gateway to the imagination for piano composers.

Messiaen La bouscarle from ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’ Debussy Reflets dans l’eau from ‘Images Book 1’ Griffes The Lake at Evening from ‘Three Tone-Pictures’ Liszt Au bord d’une source from ‘Années de pèlerinage – Première année: Suisse’ Ravel Jeux d’eau Ravel Ondine from ‘Gaspard de la nuit’ Grieg Brooklet op 62 no 4 from ‘Lyric Pieces’ Schumann Vogel als Prophet from ‘Waldscenen’

Selim Mazari Sarah Park Loh Shao Wei Nurry Lee Ning Hui See Pavel Markov Vincent Ling† Maria Inês Costa

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Place

4.35pm

La buse variable (buzzard) is set in a particular location: ‘Le Dauphine, la Matheysine. A big landscape covered by the fields of Petichet, at the end of Lake Laffrey, at the foot of the bald mountain of the Grand Serre.’ We take this as our cue to perform a short but colourful collection of pieces which are also set in specific places around the world.

Messiaen La buse variable from Juan Pablo Hinojosa Ferrera ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’ Liszt Au lac de Wallenstadt from Luka Okrostsvaridze ‘Années de pèlerinage – Première année: Suisse’ Grainger Zanzibar Boat Song Yan Lam Lai, Jane Lau &

Nigel Clayton Albéniz Triana from ‘Iberia’ Lara Melda Benjamin Jamaican Rumba Lucy Wang & Daniel Jordan Grieg Little Bird op 43 no 4 from ‘Lyric Pieces’

Berniya Hamie† Couperin from ‘Troisiéme livre de pieces de clavecin, 14th Ordre’: Le rossignol-en-amour (The nightingale in love) & Jane Lau Double du rossignol

La linote-éfarouchée (The startled linnet) Sarah Kim Les fauvétes plaintives (The plaintive warblers) Lisa Hilditch

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The Sea

5.20pm

Le traquet rieur (black wheatear) opens with an explosive theme which represents ‘joy of the blue sea’. Throughout the work it is used in dialogue with the birds of coastal habitat soaring above. The sea has always been a great source of inspiration for composers, as this collection of pieces demonstrates.

Messiaen Le traquet rieur from Catalogue d’oiseaux

Sohyun Park Debussy (arr A Caplet) Jeux de vagues from ‘La mer’ Muqiao Zhou &

Weihao Fu Debussy L’Isle joyeuse Paula Belzunegui Rachmaninov Etude-tableau in C minor op 39 no 1

Sean Jackson Rachmaninov Etude-tableau in A minor op 39 no 2 Ma Regina Montesclaros Scriabin Sonata no 2 op 19 ‘Sonate-fantasie’ Lucy Wang Tchaikovsky Song of the Lark op 39 no 2 Ziying Zhang† Daquin Le CouCou Kheng Hoe Low Marco Scorsolini Carolina Wren (world premiere) Jia Chan

Threatening Night

6.20pm

Le courlis cendré (curlew) explores a more threatening and disturbing aspect of night, and a dramatic progression of chords towards the end depicts ‘the night and the fog spreading little by little’. We close the day with a group of pieces which mirror these ideas in very different ways.

Messiaen Le courlis cendré from ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’ Vanesa Santanach Ravel Scarbo from ‘Gaspard de la nuit’ Anna Fedorova Debussy Brouillards from ‘Préludes Book 2’ Dominic Doutney Schumann In der Nacht from ‘Fantaisiestücke op 12’ Chihang Long Janáček The Barn Owl has not Flown Away! from Simone Alessandro Tavoni ‘On an Overgrown Path’

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Monday 9 March, 1.05pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall Chants de terre et de ciel Where Messiaen had his Oiseaux exotiques, other French composers had their equivalent in the natural world. In this programme, RCM Postgraduate Accompanists are joined by singers from the Vocal Faculty for a selection of Messiaen’s sensuous and beautiful songs, interspersed with witty and characterful portraits of birds, beasts and insects by Poulenc and Ravel.

Messiaen Trois Mélodies:

Pourquoi?

Le sourire

La fiancée perdue

Lauren Libaw soprano Lucie Troger piano

Poulenc Le bestiaire (ou Cortège d’Orphée):

Le dromadaire

Le chèvre du Thibet

La sauterelle

Le dauphin

L’écrevisse

La carpe

Sophie Dicks mezzo soprano Aaron Lott piano

Messiaen Chants de terre et de ciel:

no 1 Bail avec Mi

no 3 Danse du bébé-pilule

Gemma Summerfield soprano Claire Harris piano

Ravel Histoires naturelles Le paon* Le grillon* Le cygne** Le martin-pêcheur**

La pintade**

Kieran Rayner baritone Duncan Appleby piano* Marc Perna Sanfeliu piano**

Messiaen Harawi no 2 Bonjour toi, colombe verte no 4 Doundou Tchil no 10 Amour, oiseau d’étoile

Maria Ostroukhova mezzo soprano Hamish Brown piano

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Monday 9 March, 6.00pm | West Parry Room Couleurs et mystères Messiaen the organist/composer spent his entire working life playing the organ, every Sunday, in the church of La Trinité in Paris. In this concert, RCM organists recreate the exotic colours and profound spirituality of some his best known, and loved, organ music.

Joie et clarté des corps glorieux from ‘Les corps glorieux’

From ‘La Nativité du Seigneur’: no 1 La Vierge et L’Enfant no 2 Les bergers no 6 Les anges

no 5 Les enfants de Dieu

no 7 Jésus accepte la souffrance no 10 Dieu parmi nous

From ‘Messe de la Pentecôte’:

no 4 Communion (Les oiseaux et les sources) no 5 Sortie (Le vent et L’Esprit) Le banquet céleste Transports de joie from ‘L’Ascension’

Georgina Sherriff

Jack Stone Alexander Fishburn Christopher Strange Domenico Gioffrè Domenico Gioffrè Tak Man Chow Martyn Noble

Nicholas Mannoukas Laurence Long

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Tuesday 10 March, 1.05pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall Visions de l’Amen Samson Tsoy piano Pavel Kolesnikov piano Messiaen Visions de l’Amen for two pianos:

Amen de la Création

Amen des étoiles, de la planète à l’anneau

Amen de l’agonie de Jésus

Amen du désir

Amen des anges, des saints, du chant des oiseaux

Amen du jugement Amen de la consommation This is the first work of Messiaen’s to be directly inspired by the pianism of Yvonne Loriod; she had joined his harmony class at the Paris Conservatoire in 1941.

Together they premiered Visions de l’Amen in 1943.

As with Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (1944), there is an almost overwhelming sense of spirituality and drama in this monumental work. The ‘Amen’ of the title has relevance in four ways; it is the creative act, the acceptance of the divine will, the desire to be at one with God and it is symbolic of the statement, ‘that which will be’.

In his book, Messiaen, Robert Sherlaw Johnson has noted that these four aspects embody ‘the power and finality of the divine action on the cosmos’.

Samson Tsoy & Pavel Kolesnikov In 2014, Samson Tsoy and Pavel Kolesnikov were chosen by City Music Foundation and BBC New Generation Artists respectively to join their schemes for young performing artists.

Significant appearances include the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Salle Gaveau and the Louvre, and the Verbier, Santander, Spoleto, Ottawa ChamberFest, Banff Summer, Plush Music, Casalmaggiore, Mstislav Rostropovich and Rodion Shchedrin Jubilee Festivals. Recent orchestral appearances include Russia’s National Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira and Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Tsoy and Kolesnikov met in 2007 at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

They both currently study at the Royal College of Music with Norma Fisher and Professor Vanessa Latarche thanks to the generous support of Mr Christopher D Budden, the RCM and ABRSM Scholarship Foundations and Hattori Foundation.

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THANKS Special thanks must be given to the following people for their support in the organisation of the festival.

Thank you everyone!

Ian Jones, Deputy Head of Keyboard David Graham, Professor in Charge of Organ Simon Lepper, Piano Accompaniment Co-ordinator Andrew Zolinsky, Contemporary Piano Specialism Co-ordinator Roger Vignoles, Prince Consort Professor of Piano Accompaniment Valeria Farruggia, Faculties Administrator and Masterclass Co-ordinator Chris Moulton, Head of Keyboard Technical Services and the piano workshop team

In the interests of safety, sitting or standing on the steps, gangways or floors in any part of the auditorium is strictly prohibited. Please turn off your mobile phone to avoid any disturbance to the performance.

All private sound and video recordings are prohibited. Photography before and during performances is not permitted. You may take photographs only during applause. Latecomers will not be allowed into the auditorium until there is a suitable break in the performance. Smoking is not permitted in any part of the building. Your co-operation is appreciated.

Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BS www.rcm.ac.uk | tel: +44 (0)20 7591 4300 | email: info@rcm.ac.uk

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