Percussionist

In this unique world premiere, we hear Laura Bowler’s composition inspired by The White Book by Nobel Prize-winner Han Kang. The work was commissioned by Principal Guest Conductor Barbara Hannigan, who also sings at this performance. With the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and choir.

The White Book

Göteborgs Symfoniker

Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony is a work that has it all. Inspired by both Hindu scriptures and the medieval tale of Tristan and Isolde, the symphony is intoxicating and seductive, terrifying and beautiful in equal measure. The intensely colorful sound universe with a full percussion section, a virtuoso piano voice and the early electronic instrument ondes martenot is unparalleled in the history of music.

EPSG:4326

Esa-Pekka Salonen & Turangalîla

DR Koncerthuset

The key to musical modernity is said to lie in that unresolved, drifting Tristan chord: Richard Wagner’s epochal music drama Tristan und Isolde takes up the idea of unquenchable desire from the High Medieval Codex Menasse and propels it into the transcendental. Complicated by a love potion and unbroken in the Liebestod (Love-Death), the fibres of the musical fabric stretch. The prelude also gained fame through Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia, in whose wake an oversized moon hurtles towards Earth. This image would surely have appealed to Olivier Messiaen, even though his work on the Tristan theme exists far removed from Wagner’s sonic cosmos. Turangalîla, a central part of Messiaen's Tristan trilogy, is a neologism from Sanskrit, combining «turanga» – time running like a galloping horse – with «lîla,» the cosmic game. Analyses of his only symphony in ten movements fill entire books. Messiaen contented himself with the statement: «This work is a love song. I do not consider it necessary to offer further explanations.» Maxime Pascal, Principal Guest Conductor at Deutsche Oper Berlin, conducted Messiaen’s only opera, Saint François d’Assise, in Salzburg in the summer of 2026; now he continues his exploration of this composer.

Percussionist

Cécile Lartigau

Events

Upcoming events

14 - 15 May, 2026

Esa-Pekka Salonen & Turangalîla · Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Feb 7, 2027

Symphony Concert: Turangalîla · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Past events

14 - 15 Feb, 2026

The White Book · Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Future and recently performed repertoire

Ondes martenot in Turangalîla Symphony by Messiaen

Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Percussion in Three Little Liturgies of the Divine Presence by Messiaen

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

About

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