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Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951)

Koussevitzky as Patron: The Koussevitzky Music Foundation and Commissioning Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie

Ever the entrepreneur in seeking ways to support and promote living composers, Serge Koussevitzky established the Koussevitzky Music Foundation to honor his beloved wife Natalie when she passed away in 1942, ensuring a legacy that continues to support new works till this day. One work that the foundation commissioned was Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie, commissioned in 1945, and premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on December 2, 1949 with Leonard Bernstein conducting.

Catalog cover for the Koussevitzky Music Foundation with a profile view of Koussevitzky conducting and an elaborately designed medallion

Cover for the catalog of works commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation

Working Together: Summer of 1949

A group of students and faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center sit and stand on a grassy lawn
Serge Koussevitzky with TMC faculty and students getting ready for their class picture, ca. 1949. All three men involved in the premiere of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie spend the summer of 1949 together as faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center, mentoring the next generation of musicians. Serge Koussevitzky, whose foundation commissioned Turangalila, is seated near the center in a white hat, with composer Olivier Messiaen seated directly to his right (viewer’s left). Conductor Leonard Bernstein is seated two seats to the left (viewer’s right) of Koussevitzky, next to Aaron Copland. Photograph by Heinz Weissenstein (Whitestone Photo)

Preparing for the Premiere

Pale blue air mail envelope with cancelled stamps addressed to George E. Judd from Olivier Messiaen

Envelope for letter from composer Olivier Messiaen to BSO manager George Judd, dated October 3, 1949 (in French)

Four pages of a letter written by OIivier Messiaen to BSO Manager George Judd

Letter from composer Olivier Messiaen to BSO manager George Judd, dated October 3, 1949 (in French)

Messiaen discusses his work commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, to be premiered by Leonard Bernstein with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Among other logistics, he suggests Ginnette Martenot and Yvonne Loriod as the only performers for the soloist parts of ondes Martenot and piano, respectively.

The World Premiere: 1949

A woman, Ginette Martenot, sits at an Ondes Martenot while shadows from the instrument fall on the wall behind

Ginette Martenot at the ondes Martenot

Ginette Martenot was the sister of the ondes Martenot’s inventor, Maurice Martenot. With the BSO, on December 2, 1949 she performed the world premiere of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, which featured her instrument prominently.

Photograph by Georges Saad

Five pages of handwritten program notes on Messiaen's Turangalila Symphonie

Olivier Messiaen’s handwritten program notes for Turangalîla-Symphonie (in French)

An English translation of Messiaen’s notes can be found in the program book for the premiere performance.

Program book for world premiere of Messiaen's Turangalila Symphonie

Program for the premiere of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie

On December 2, 1949, Leonard Bernstein conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of Messiaen’s work, which had been commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation. Both Messiaen and Bernstein had spent the past summer with Koussevitzky as faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA.

Newspaper clippings with reviews of Messiaen's Turangalila after its premiere performance in 1949

Reviews of the premiere performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in December 1949

Leonard Bernstein conducted the work in both Boston’s Symphony Hall on December 2 and 3, 1949 and in New York’s Carnegie Hall on December 10, 1949. Both Boston and New York audiences were bewildered, split between derision and admiration.

Autographed manuscript of the first page of the sixth movement from Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, signed and dated December 2, 1949 The entire composition comprises ten movements and takes about 90 minutes to perform. The sixth movement is entitled “Jardin du Sommeil d'Amour [Garden of the Sleep of Love]. The composer’s program note describes this movement as a “long and slow melody of the Ondes Martenot and the strings, infinitely tender and gentle.”

Leonard Bernstein Conducts a BSO Rehearsal in November 1949 to Prepare for the Premiere of Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie

Listen: Excerpt from a rehearsal of Messiaen's Turangalila with the BSO by Leonard Bernstein, November 28, 1949

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Seiji Ozawa discusses Turangalîla with Michael Tilson Thomas

In 1970, then BSO Associate Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas interviewed an up-and-coming Seiji Ozawa, and the conversation turned to Messiaen and Ozawa's numerous performances of the difficult Turangalîla, even before he became the BSO's Music Director three years later in 1973.

Listen: Seiji Ozawa talks with Michael Tilson Thomas about Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie in 1970

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Reprise in 1975 - Seiji Ozawa Brings His Experience to the BSO

Curtain call at performance of Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie on August 16, 1975 in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, Lenox, MA

Over twenty-five years after its premiere, the BSO performed Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie again, this time under the direction of Seiji Ozawa (already a veteran in conducting the work elsewhere), both during the Symphony Hall season in Boston and at Tanglewood in Lenox. From left to right, after the Tanglewood performance: piano soloist Yvonne Loriod, composer Olivier Messiaen, conductor Seiji Ozawa, and ondes Martenot soloist Jeanne Loriod.

Photograph by Heinz Weissenstein (Whitestone Photo)

Birdseye view of Tanglewood Shed stage with ondes martenot and piano near front of stage

Performance photograph of Seiji Ozawa conducting the BSO with soloists Yvonne Loriod and Jeanne Loriod in Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie at Tanglewood

The unusual looking ondes Martenot is located near the stage’s edge, on the far left side of this photograph. In addition to the two solo keyboard instruments, the composer also included three additional keyboard-like instruments in the percussion section: vibraphone (lower left corner), glockenspiel (behind piano), and celesta (behind glockenspiel).

Photograph by Heinz Weissenstein (Whitestone Photo)

Inscription from Messiaen to Seiji Ozawa and title page of score for Turangalila Symphonie

Seiji Ozawa’s marked score of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, with inscription from the composer (in French)

Messiaen was so impressed by Seiji Ozawa’s interpretation of his composition in 1975 that he inscribed the following in the conductor’s personal score: “To the great Seiji Ozawa, his symphony!!!”

A woman sits at the piano while her husband stands behind and looks over her shoulder

Composer Olivier Messiaen with his second wife, pianist Yvonne Loriod

Loriod played the piano solo in the BSO performances of Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie in both 1949 and 1975.

Photographer unknown

Seiji Ozawa conducts Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie in Cologne, Germany, May 7, 2000: Excerpt from Introduction