Interview
Kristjan Järvi in conversation with Philipp Bohnen Kristjan Järvi conducts Tchaikovsky and Messiaen
Kristjan Järvi presents works that focus on happiness and salvation with, in the words of the press, “masterly conducting”. Carl Nielsen’s Overture En Fantasirejse til Færøerne dreams of the natural landscape of the Faroe Islands, before Olivier Messiaen’s L’Ascension, sometimes ecstatic, sometimes deeply meditative, reflects on Christ’s ascension and the redemption of man. Finally, we experience man’s struggle for happiness in the face of destiny in Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony.
L’Ascension is among Olivier Messiaen’s early orchestral works. Written in 1932/33, it still manifests an Impressionist influence. Nonetheless, the work, which Messiaen later also arranged for organ, is already typical for the French composer with its religious topic and preference for a sensuous musical language.
If Messiaen draws his musical inspiration from the spiritual connection with the divine, for Peter Tchaikovsky the impetus behind his creative work was feelings of having no home and of uncertainty. No composition shows this more clearly than his Fourth Symphony, whose belligerent opening fanfare stands for the implacability of destiny. Man’s futile striving for happiness is the great theme which the Russian composer used as programmatic basis for his work.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kristjan Järvi
© 2012 Berlin Phil Media GmbH
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