Messiaen's Works for the Concerts de la Pléiade: 'A Kind of Clandestine Revenge against the Occupation

Messiaen and the Concerts de la Pléiade: 'A Kind of Clandestine Revenge against the
Occupation'
Author(s): Nigel Simeone
Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 81, No. 4 (Nov., 2000), pp. 551-584
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/854539
Accessed: 02-01-2018 17:09 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to Music & Letters
This content downloaded from 193.136.113.73 on Tue, 02 Jan 2018 17:09:45 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
? Oxford University Press
MESSIAEN AND THE CONCERTS DE LA PLEIADE:

'A KIND OF CLANDESTINE REVENGE AGAINST
THE OCCUPATION"
BY NIGEL SIMEONE
ORIGINS OF THE CONCERTS DE LA PLEIADE
ON 6 MAY 1940, the Paris Opera gave the first performance in Fr

opera Medee, the last premiere to be given at this great shrine to Fr
the fall of France six weeks later and the consequent Nazi occupat
few courageous exceptions, Parisian performances of works by Jew
as Milhaud were to become a dim memory for the next five years.
is recorded by Nicolas Slonimsky: a concert in the hall of the
Musique on 1 June 1943 which included a work improbably entitle
composed by the ostensibly Egyptian-sounding 'Hamid-al-Usur
restrictions in occupied Paris on performances by Jewish co
anagrammatic ruse perpetrated on this occasion was necessary in o
Darius Milhaud's Scaramouche. It was not only Jewish musician
suppressed. By 1943 the German authorities had effectively p
performance in concert halls of all unpublished works by French
partly to circumvent such an interdiction that the Concerts
founded. They were to provide an important platform for seve
composers whose music would otherwise have remained largely un
the Occupation.
Perhaps the most interesting case is that of Olivier Messiaen, who
most important works for the series: Visions de l'Amen and Trois pe
Presence Divine. Much of this article is an examination of the docum
the genesis, rehearsal, performance and reception of these two wo
worth considering the origins of the concert series for which they
and composed.
The idea for the Concerts de la Pleiade emerged during conversat
publisher Gaston Gallimard and the film producer Denise Tual,
leading role in the planning of the series. In addition to her activi
impresario,3 Tual's long career was principally as a cineaste, working
conjunction with her husband Roland Tual. Born on 15 May 1
included several of the artistic giants of the twentieth century: w
I am extremely grateful to Mme Denise Tual, the inspiration behind the Concerts de la P
consult copies of documents and photographs in her collection, and for sharing her vivid rem
an interview in her Paris apartment on 27 March 1999. At the time of this meeting she was
am most grateful to both Mme Tual and Mme Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen for permiss
unpublished correspondence in the present article.
Messiaen, given in Nouritza Matossian, Iannis Xenakis, Paris, 1981, p. 52.
2 See Nicolas Slonimsky: Music since 1900, 5th edn., New York, 1994, p. 485.
3 In addition to the Concerts de la Pleiade, Tual organized (with Nicolas Nabokov) the
concerts and operas presented as 'L'oeuvre du XXe Siecle' in 1952.
551
Cocteau, Colette, Paul Eluard, Andre Gide and Jacques Prevert; film makers such as
Luis Bufiuel, Alfred Hitchcock and Jean Renoir; and musicians such as Vladimir
Horowitz, Francis Poulenc and Igor Stravinsky. Detailed plans for the concerts were
first made in the autumn of 1942 at a dinner with Jeanne and Gaston Gallimard. The
Gallimards were frequent visitors to Tual's top-floor apartment at 9 rue de Beaujolais.
Gaston had founded the Editions de la Nouvelle Revue Franqaise in 1909 (the firm is
still flourishing today as Editions Gallimard, and still uses the familiar nrf emblem on
many of its publications). His regular Wednesday meetings of authors had become
impossible during the Occupation, either because of the danger of such gatherings
(which would have been seen as subversive by the occupying forces), or by the
dispersal of authors to various parts of France and the considerable difficulty of
travelling. Gallimard needed to find a pretext for occasions at which his authors could
meet, and it was Tual who gave him the idea of a concert series. In her Itineraire des
Concerts de la Pleiade, she describes the genesis of the concerts:4
Since the start of the war, the Wednesday meetings of authors at the NRF had been
abandoned. In wartime, such meetings could have been interpreted as utterly futile protests.
Moreover, since the Occupation, one hesitated to gather more than about twenty people
together for fear that someone undesirable might slip into the group.
Little by little, his [Gallimard's] relationships with authors weakened, and the contact so
necessary to a publisher became more remote. Gaston wanted to find a worthwhile pretext
to reunite his authors and maintain his rapport with them.
With his eyes half closed, he asked me to suggest an idea which would allow him to re-
establish this climate. He said: 'I don't suppose you might have any ideas, might you?'
I certainly did have an idea for meeting together: music.
The Germans were about to ban orchestras and soloists from playing unpublished works
by French composers in concert halls. This was a rather comical kind of revenge: in 1914-
18, the French had banned the performance of works by German composers.
Why not react against this, and bring together writers, in small numbers, under the
admirable pretext of performing new musical works by young composers who were not able
to be heard freely, and to commission some new pieces for these intimate reunions?
I outlined this project to Gaston Gallimard. He was not particularly musical but he was
enthusiastic about the idea. However, before giving his agreement, he took advice from
Gide, then living in the Midi, who gave the idea his blessing.5 To use music as a means of
defying the dark years of the Occupation was easier to imagine than to put into practice.
Wartime put distance between people, and the least degree of separation became an
extremely serious obstacle. I was to encounter the same problems with composers as
Gaston Gallimard found with his authors scattered around the world.6
For musical advice, Tual turned first to her friend Roger Desormiere, but he could
not give the necessary time in view of his commitments as principal conductor at the
Opera-Comique and as a busy guest conductor. He was also active in the Resistance
and did not wish to draw attention to himself with artistic activity which might attract
notice from the occupying authorities. At Desormiere's suggestion, Denise Tual
approached Andre Schaeffner, who agreed to assist her. In the Itineraire she describes
the arrangements which needed to be made during the winter of 1942-3, before the
first concert:
4 Denise Tual, Itineraire des Concerts de la Pleiade, unpublished and undated typescript, 19ff. (1 f., unnumbered, with
title, signed by Denise Tual; 18ff., numbered 1-18), Bibliotheque Nationale de France (henceforth F-Pn) R6s. Vm.
dos. 70.
5 Despite his enthusiasm for music, Gide does not appear to have been involved in the programming policy of the
Concerts de la Pleiade. He spent most of the war years away from Paris, in Carcassonne.
6 Tual, Itineraire, ff. 1-2: original text in Appendix I, item 1. All translations in this article are by the author.
552
The distinguished musicologist Andre Schaeffner became my colleague. At the time,
Schaeffner was working at the Musee de l'Homme alongside Professor Rivel and Michel
Leiris, and he was part of the Resistance movement there. Roger Desormiere himself was
part of another Resistance group.
As I have already indicated, the Germans had forbidden all new French musical writing.
They had also banned all musicians who had not returned to France, such as Stravinsky,
Darius Milhaud and Prokofiev, as well as those who were living in the Free Zone, such as
Georges Auric, Francis Poulenc and Jean Francaix.
Communication was difficult, and we needed to spend a long time making the necessary
arrangements. To bring the project to life, Gaston Gallimard gave it a name: 'Les Concerts
de la Pleiade'. The budget was established, and a venue was found. It was necessary to
avoid concert halls as a result of the German laws which outlawed all gatherings of more
than thirty to forty people without special permission. The Director of the Galerie
Charpentier, Monsieur [Raymond] Nacenta, proved to be the man of the moment. He
understood the intellectual advantages of such an enterprise and bravely put his gallery at
our disposal.
The format of the programmes was established as follows: a period work, little played or
even unknown, one or more first performances of works by young composers, and a work
by a forbidden foreign composer such as Stravinsky, or one of the musicians in the Free
Zone, such as Poulenc or Auric. The organization took several months.
To begin with I looked at the pupils of Nadia Boulanger and there I found Jean
FranCaix and Michel Ciry. The most difficult task was to find works which had been
composed and were ready for their first performance, but the grapevine proved effective. I
had considerable luck which enabled me to make contact with musicians whom I did not
know personally.
I asked Charles Munch and Roger Desormiere to conduct, but they declined. Maurice
Hewitt accepted . . . Eventually, the first Concert de la Pleiade was announced the
following year, on 8 February 1943, at the Galerie Charpentier. It featured Maurice Hewitt
as conductor. A little while [a few days] beforehand we were in complete chaos as Hewitt
had just been arrested by the Gestapo.7
Maurice Hewitt (1884-1971), the conductor of the first concerts, was constantly
badgered by the Gestapo before his eventual deportation to Buchenwald in November
1943. A Frenchman of English descent, he was second violinist in the Capet Quartet
(1909-14; 1919-28); then, following Lucien Capet's death in 1928, he founded the
Quatuor de Paris (1928-30). In 1930 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he taught
and formed the Cleveland Quartet. Following his return to France, he formed the
Hewitt Quartet (1935-9; 1946-8) and, in 1939, the Orchestre de Chambre Hewitt.8 It
was this orchestra which formed the mainstay of the Concerts de la Pleiade in its first
season, until Hewitt's deportation. He had been appointed professor of chamber
music at the Paris Conservatoire by Claude Delvincourt in 1942; once liberated from
Buchenwald, he resumed his post, remaining at the Conservatoire until 1955. As well
as performing new or recent music at the Concerts de la Pleiade, Hewitt did much to
encourage the revival of interest in French Baroque music. His detention a few days
before the first concert drew an alarmed reaction from Jean FranSaix, whose
Divertissement was on the programme:
I have learnt with astonishment about the capture of our conductor, but in Paris nothing is
surprising! And I had a terribly egotistical reaction: what was going to happen to the
manuscript score and parts of my Divertissement, and of my Trois epigrammes, which were also
at his house? If the doors have not been sealed, as seems to be the charming custom these
7 Tual, Itiniraire, ff. 2-3: original text in Appendix I, item 2.

8 See Alain Paris, Dictionnaire des interpretes et de l'interpritation musicale au XX' siecle, 2nd edn., Paris, 1985, p. 385.
553
days, would you consent to do me a great favour and help me recover them? I am working
all the time on my comic opera, and accumulating semiquavers is always my weakness,
rightly or wrongly, I don't know.'
Between February and June 1943, five concerts were given at the Galerie
Charpentier, 76 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, with an audience admitted strictly
by invitation. The gallery was a large, attractive space into which it was possible to
install a bank of raked seating as well as a number of other seats on three sides of a
platform, for an audience of about 250 (see Pll. I & II). However, for the two public
PLATE I
An amateur photograph of the premiere of Visions de l'Amen at the Galerie Char

10 May 1943, showing Messiaen and Loriod performing the work on a raised plat
centre of the gallery (F-Pn Res. Vm. dos. 70 (18) No. 4)
Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France
concerts given for the benefit of writers and musicians who were prisoner
and 28 June 1943), demand for seats was such that it was necessary to m
larger Salle Gaveau. The concerts continued until 1947, using the Salle du
toire (1944-5) and the Theatre des Champs-Elysees (1946-7) (see Appen
complete list of the programmes). News of the concerts reached an in
audience even before the end of World War II: the London periodic
published an appreciative article by Rudolph Dunbar-described as 'W
pondent in France'-on the origins and early seasons of the concerts."1 He
the Concerts de la Pleiade as 'a society of momentous importance' and par
9 Letter from Fran;aix to Denise Tual, quoted in Tual, Itineraire, f. 3: original text in Appendix I, i
o 'Ihe relevant part of this article is given in Appendix I, item 4.
554
artistic resistance movement. But the vitality of the concerts themselves was dependent
on financial backing, of which there appeared to be plenty: according to Dunbar,
'rehearsals did not present any difficulties because the society paid lucratively for
them'; the performance of Rameau's Platee, for instance (part of a programming
tradition in which historical French works complemented the society's new commis-
sions), alone cost 120,000 francs.
In a reference to the exclusive nature of the audience, Dunbar could not resist a
slightly gleeful swipe at the Germans: 'These concerts were private and admission was
PLATE II
A second photograph taken on 10 May 1943, showing the audience (probably be

of the performance); Poulenc is seated in the back row, third from the right, le
forwards (F-Pn Res. Vm. dos. 70 (18) No. 10)
Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France
by invitation. Only those interested in French art were invited, therefor

were automatically rebuffed.' Dunbar described the audience as 'the
public in Paris' and was particularly struck by the artistic community
up around the concerts: 'Poets and musicians were . . . brought toge
before in France, and they found a reciprocal relationship with eac
concerts also attracted rather less serious notices; sometimes they were w
not as musical events, but as glittering social occasions enlivening an oth
time. Marcelle Auclair, for example, wrote in her column 'Ma sema
Marie-Claire:
It is thrilling to comment on the Concerts de la Pleiade which take place at the Galerie
Charpentier. At a time when we get butter from the butcher, meat from the hairdresser and
555
sugar from the shoe repairer, these fashionable concerts take place in an art gallery. It is only
possible to go to them by invitation and, of course, it's a personal affront not to be invited!
Madame Colette arrives on her bicycle, in her sports outfit, wearing sandals and a boater.
She cycles from Palais Royal because it's all on the flat, she confided to us."
But the critical reaction to the concerts was not unmixed. Writing mainly about the
two benefit concerts in the Salle Gaveau in June 1943, Tony Aubin (winner of the Prix
de Rome in 1930) took a less generous stance towards the concerts in his review for the
pro-Vichy paper Comoedia. He began by questioning the principles behind the
programming, and then he attacked the audience:
The group La Pleiade has just finished its season with public concerts given at the Salle
Gaveau for the benefit of writers and musicians who are prisoners of war. That is fine.
Evenings which were both attractive and educational. Programmes devised in line with the
politics of this group, of which I approve in that it plays new music, and of which I
sometimes disapprove given its choice of that music. An audience which surprises one in the
passion of its feelings and the fragility of its reasoning. In a word: a feminine audience, with
charm, plenty of intuition and frivolity, an understanding of and deep desire for the
superficial, and little brain under those astonishing hats.12
This presents a crudely dismissive (and inaccurate) view of the audience, in stark
contrast to Dunbar in Tempo (who considered it an intellectual elite), and seems rather
jaundiced when compared with the gossip-column effervescence of Auclair, who saw
the concerts as highlights in the social calendar.'3 However, more importantly, Aubin
questions the choice of composers represented in the concerts, ending with a vigorous
diatribe about the 'Frenchness' (or otherwise) of Stravinsky, who had become a
French citizen in 1934, having lived in France since 1920:
Poulenc, Sauguet, Francaix, Messiaen last month: such are the living composers presented
by the Pleiade. Debussy and Ravel: they are the classics of the house ... A more serious
concern is that the Pleiade claims to give concerts of French music. But in these
programmes of French music the works of Roussel have never appeared, which is an
injustice, nor Piernm, which is a foolish oversight, nor Faure, which is a crime.14
On the other hand, M. Igor Stravinsky has triumphed every which way, in major and
in minor, with all his pianos and his strings. Let's have the truth for once: M. Stravinsky
is no Frenchman, not by race, not by birth, not by education, not by aesthetic, not by
thought, not by language, not by inspiration and not by knowledge . . . To make a
French composer of him is the mental aberration of a society which has lost its reason and
its culture. 5
'VISIONS DE L AMEN)
One of the most significant first performances given in Paris during the Occupation
took place at the fourth Concert de la Pleiade, on 10 May 1943: the premiere of
Messiaen's Visions de l'Amen. Messiaen had been repatriated in spring 1941 from
captivity in Silesia, and took up a post as professor of harmony at the Conservatoire in
n Undated newspaper cutting from Marie-Claire in Tual's papers at F-Pn: original text in Appendix I, item 5.
12 Tony Aubin, undated newspaper cutting from Comoedia in Tual's papers at F-Pn; original text in Appendix I,
item 6.
13 The distinguished audiences for the concerts on 10 May 1943 and 21 April 1945 are discussed in detail below,
along with others who regularly attended the Concerts de la Pleiade.
14 Aubin has overlooked (or perhaps chosen to overlook) the performance of Faure's Pleurs d'or at the Concert de la
Pleiade on 22 March 1943.
15 Aubin, undated newspaper cutting from Comoedia (as n. 12): original text in Appendix I, item 6.
556
April 1941,16 an enlightened appointment by the new director, Claude Delvincourt, a
man who was to take a consistently courageous stand against the occupying forces.
During the months that followed Messiaen's Conservatoire appointment, he worked
on his Technique de mon langage musical, completing it at Neussargues (in the Cantal)
during the summer of 1942. By then he had started to teach private courses in musical
analysis which were to run in parallel with his harmony classes at the Conservatoire
for several years; he also resumed his duties as titulaire at the Trinite (where he had
been appointed in September 1931). However, he composed no major works between
the completion and first performance of the Quatuor pour la fin du temps in January 1941
and the commissioning of Visions de l'Amen in December 1942.'7 One significant event
for Messiaen during this period was the first publication, by Durand, of the Quatuor
pour la fin du temps, issued in May 1942 in a print run limited by chronic paper
shortages to only 100 copies.
In her absorbing memoir Le temps devore, Denise Tual described the stroke of luck
that brought about her first encounter with Messiaen, during 1942. Her cousin was
the singer Irene Joachim (the Melisande on Desormiere's 1941 recording of Pelleas et
Melisande). Joachim told Tual about a curious young man whose music might be of
interest to her, but this conversation was soon forgotten. Some months later Tual went
into the Eglise de la Trinite early one evening and was overwhelmed by the
extraordinary music coming from the organ. She determined at once to meet its
composer, but was informed by the verger that such a meeting could only be
requested in writing. As she explains in Le temps devore:
That same evening I wrote to Olivier Messiaen and received by return a very friendly reply
on yellowed paper, which confirmed a meeting for me a few days later at the Trinite, in front
of the door leading up to the organ loft.
I was expecting to meet a very young and zany man. I was still imagining the pre-war
generation of musicians, the elegance of a Desormiere or the eccentricity of a Varese. I found
myself in front of a man of the church . . . He asked me to sit beside him on the organ
bench. Our conversation was in hushed tones and he seemed visibly frightened. His face lit
up when I told him the purpose of my visit. A commission? He beamed.'8
The letter 'on yellowed paper' to which Tual refers is not among her papers in the
Bibliotheque Nationale and seems not to have survived. The known correspondence
about Visions de l'Amen begins with a letter from Messiaen to Tual dated 26 October
1942.19 This confirms the details of the commission, though as yet the work appears to
have no title or at least none which Messiaen was prepared to make public;
characteristically Messiaen also fusses over the method of payment:
Chere Madame,
We are entirely in agreement in every respect.
I will write you a work for two pianos; you will put it on at your third concert. I will be
paid 10,000 francs for it and I have already received your cheque for 4,000 francs on account.
(Incidentally, you sent this cheque crossed, which is perfect, but without mentioning my
name as the bearer; I am not sure if I can cash it like this. Don't worry. If there is any
difficulty, I will let you know.)
16 April 1941 is the date given by Messiaen in his autobiographical note for the programme of the first performance
of Visions de I'Amen on 10 May 1943.
17 Only two works are known to have been composed by Messiaen during this time. Both are unpublished: Choeurs
pour une Jeanne d'Arc, for large and small mixed chorus, written during summer 1941 at Neussargues, and Musique de
scene pour un Oedipe, for solo Ondes Martenot, written in Paris during 1942.
18 Denise Tual, Le temps divore, Paris, 1980, p. 195: original text in Appendix I, item 7.
'9 This letter, and all the following letters from Messiaen, are in the Tual papers at F-Pn, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11). The
original texts of the letters published here are given in Appendix III.
557
I have just spent a five-hour afternoon with Monsieur Dubois and was delighted.20 I will
visit him again regularly after 4 January, as I am leaving Paris for eight days-but I will not
forget to take our work with me. On the contrary, I am taking my sketches to have a think
about them.21
Just under three months later, on 17 March 1943, Messiaen was able to announce the
completion of the work in a carte pneumatique to Tual:
Chere Madame,
My work is finished. Here are the title and the subtitles: Visions de l'Amen for 2 pianos.
I. Amen de la Creation; II. Amen des etoiles, de la planete a l'anneau; III. Amen de l'agonie
de Jesus; IV. Amen du Desir; V. Amen des anges, des saints, du chant des oiseaux;
VI. Amen du jugement; VII. Amen de la Consommation.
In a fortnight I will have finished a first fair copy which I will give to Mlle Loriod so that
we can start rehearsing together immediately. I am completely at your disposal as far as the
writing of the programme is concerned, but this work has quite a fully developed literary
and musical commentary.
The work is of considerable proportions: it lasts a total of 40 minutes, almost 45! It is in a
very characteristic style and should therefore be placed in the middle of the concert. It
would be impossible to start with it. Thank you for allowing me to undertake this huge
project, and to complete it.22
A month later, preparations for the concert were well advanced, and Messiaen wrote
on 18 April 1943 from the house of his aunt Agnes Messiaen at Fuligny-par-Ville-sur-
Terre (Aube) about the guests he wanted to be invited, and reporting progress on
rehearsals:
Chere Madame,
You will find enclosed a list of 50 names and addresses.23 These are the people I would
like you to invite to the Concert de la Pleiade on 10 May. Having said that, I have included
only the bare minimum among the numerous pupils and friends who want to come to the
first performance, and who have already spoken to me about it several times. Perhaps the
hall is going to hold a larger audience than for the previous concerts as the layout is
different. Since many of these people are friends of both of us, I hope you will be able to
invite all those on the list, and I thank you for doing that with all my heart.
I should also mention that my wife and son appear on the list-above all don't forget
them! It will also need to be borne in mind that the two pianists (Mlle Loriod and myself)
and the two page turners (because we must have two page turners) will also requires passes
to get in. I thought of this because your front-of-house arrangements are draconian-and I
congratulate you on that!
Forgive me for troubling you with these mundane questions! I gave my manuscript to
Mile Loriod five days ago (my own copy is just finished) and we have had a first rehearsal:
she already plays magnificently!24
The mention of 'draconian' front-of-house arrangements in this letter is the only

reference in Messiaen's correspondence with Tual to the controls which were
necessary to ensure that neither occupying Germans nor known collaborators were
admitted to the concerts. The first performance of Visions de l'Amen was originally
scheduled to form part of the third Concert de la Pleiade, given at the Galerie
Charpentier on 3 May 1943, but a small printed invitation (which manages to misspell
20 It has not been possible to establish the identity of Monsieur Dubois.

21 Appendix III, letter 1.
23 This list is not among Tual's papers in F-Pn and has probably not survived.
558
Messiaen as 'Messian' and Loriod as 'Loriot') announced the decision to give the work
in a programme of its own a week later:
CONCERT DE LA PLEIADE
DU LUNDI 10 MAI 1943 A 17 HEURES
Il avait ete prevu au programme du 3 mai, la premiere audition de Visions de l'
(pour deux pianos) d'Olivier Messian.
L'importance, le caractere et la duree de cette oeuvre ont amene les Concer
Pleiade a presenter celle-ci au cours d'un concert qui lui sera uniquement consacre
Visions de I'Amen sera interprete par Olivier Messian et Yvonne Loriot le 10 m
heures.
Cette invitation sera demandee a l'entree.25
In a letter dated 11 April 1999, Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen kindly supplied me with a

number of details about the rehearsals for Visions de l'Amen in the weeks before the
premiere. This richly detailed letter is invaluable in documenting the preparations for
the first performance. As Loriod writes, it was a busy time for Messiaen:
The moment Olivier Messiaen finished the work, he needed to have two copies made. (He
had a vast amount of work in 1943: his organ playing for all the weddings and funerals, and
his class at the Conservatoire at the time of the annual competitions-it was the year of my
own premier prix for harmony.)26
The rehearsals were held at the house of Loriod's godmother, Mme Sivade:
My godmother, a piano teacher, lived in the rue Blanche, 200 metres from the Sainte-
Trinite, and this enabled Olivier Messiaen to rehearse with me at her house, in her salon
where there were two pianos. (It's impossible to reduce this work to one piano four hands as
each piano uses the entire compass!)27
Messiaen already knew Mme Sivade's house in the rue Blanche: it was there that he
gave his earliest private classes, beginning in the summer of 1942.28 (It was only in the
latter part of 1943 that Messiaen's classes moved to the house of Guy-Bernard
Delapierre at 24 rue Visconti, Paris 6e, between rue Bonaparte and rue de Seine,
near the Institut.)
Loriod also gives an account of the private dress rehearsal for the concert, quoting
the entry from Messiaen's pocket diary for Sunday 9 May 1943 and adding further
comments of her own about this remarkable occasion:
'14h. rehearsal at Mme Sivade's ... Those who came were Mme Tual, Gallimard, Poulenc,
Jolivet, Samazeuilh, Honegger, Mme Messiaen.' So, a dress rehearsal on the eve of the
premiere on Monday 10 May at the Galerie Charpentier. After this rehearsal, with these few
invited guests, Messiaen went down the rue Blanche to play the organ for 5 o'clock Vespers
at the Trinite.29
In the same letter, Loriod provides information about the work's second performance,
which took place a few weeks later:
25 This document is in F-Pn Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11) and confirms the requirement to bring a copy of the invitation in
order to gain admission to the concert. A draft announcement on the verso, not in Messiaen's or Loriod's handwriting,
describes the work as a 'Concerto pour 2 pianos'.
27 Ibid. Loriod's reference to the impossibility of reducing the piece for one piano is in reply to my enquiry about the
account given in Le temps divore, where Tual states that the rehearsal was held using the single piano in her apartment
at 9 rue de Beaujolais. In a passage of the Itineraire (Appendix I, item 8, cited below) she gives a similar description of
this private run-through of Visions de l'Amen.
28 See Jean Boivin, La classe de Messiaen, Paris, 1995, pp. 44-5.
559
Second performance of this work: Tuesday 22 June, at the Salle Gaveau, Paris (again with
0. Messiaen-second piano-and me-first piano), organized by Guy-Bernard Delapierre
who himself read Olivier Messiaen's texts. (Also in this context, the Poemes pour Mi were sung
by Marcelle Bunlet, with the composer at the piano.)30
According to Tual's Itineraire, Andre Schaeffner was also present at the dress rehearsal.
Tual also alludes to prejudice against the work from some members of her circle of
friends and advisers, including Schaeffner:
Once the manuscript was delivered, I insisted that Schaeffner and Gallimard attend a
private performance of Visions de l'Amen. They were not well disposed towards the work,
accusing me of wanting to introduce liturgical music into the concerts.
It was in the midst of this unpromising ambience that the two performers arrived. They
sat at the piano and Olivier Messiaen announced in a mournful voice 'Les Visions de l'Amen'.
Quickly the faces [of the audience] became serious, intense, lifting their gaze towards the
pianists.
Once the last chords had died away, there was a long silence. Messiaen thought we hated
his work. Our reaction was eventually so enthusiastic that a broad smile lit up his face and
that of his pupil Yvonne Loriod.31
This account can readily be reconciled with the details of a 'dress rehearsal' supplied
by Loriod. However, in view of the documentary evidence cited in Loriod's letter, and
Loriod's own detailed memories of the occasion, the longer version of events given by
Tual in Le temps devore must be treated with caution, since the author appears to have
confused this private performance with another event which took place in her own
apartment at 9 rue de Beaujolais.32 More valuable, however, is her inclusion of some
intriguing reactions by leading musicians to the forthcoming premiere:
When I announced to the musicians in our circle that Messiaen had been booked for the
Concerts de la Pleiade, there was an outcry. Poulenc sketched, amid gales of laughter,
silhouette of a nun with her arms crossed on her stomach, singing an Ave Maria; Saug
lightly raised his eyebrows; Desormiere, who was decidedly sniffy, looked sorrow
decided to stick to my plan, and to lead it safely home through winds and storms.33
At least two of the views described in this passage are puzzling: Roger Desormiere
conducted Les offrandes oubliees and the Hymne au Saint Sacrement at the inaug
concert of La jeune France (3 June 1936), and, a year later, Les offrandes oubliees and th
premiere of 'Action de graces' from the Poemes pour Mi at its second concert (4 J
1937). In December 1942 he recorded Les offrandes oubliees with the Orchestre d
Concerts Pierne for the Association Fran;aise d'Action Artistique. He was later to
the premiere of the Trois petites liturgies de la Presence Divine (Concerts de la Pl
21 April 1945) and the European premiere of the Turangal?la-symphonie (Ai
Provence Festival, 25 July 1950): in short, he was among the most energe
proponents of Messiaen's music. Poulenc had taken a personal hand in arran
Messiaen's appearance at the 1938 ISCM Festival in London and in 1942 wro
admiringly of his originality to none other than Andre Schaeffner: 'Apart
FranSaix and Messiaen, all the young composers are quite happy with what
done before 1914'.34 On this evidence neither Desormiere nor Poulenc seems to be at
30 Ibid.
31 Tual, Itiniraire, f. 6: original text in Appendix I, item 8.
32 Tual, Le temps divore, pp. 195-7.
33 Ibid., p. 197: original text in Appendix I, item 9.
34 See Francis Poulenc, Selected Correspondence, 1915-1963: 'Echo and Source', ed. & trans. Sidney Buckland with Patrick
Saul, London, 1991, letter 160, pp. 129-31.
560
all hostile to Messiaen. The most plausible explanation for their apparent dismissal of
his work in 1943 is that they took his earnest religious mysticism rather less seriously
than did the composer himself.
The audiences for the Concerts de la Pleiade regularly included many of the most
distinguished French musicians, artists and writers of the day. Photographs in Tual's
papers in the Bibliotheque Nationale show, among others, Marie-Blanche de
Polignac, Roland-Manuel, Christian Dior and Francis Poulenc in the audience for
the concert on 10 May 1943 (P1. II).35 According to Tual's recollections in the Itineraire,
others present on this occasion included Paul Valery, Francois Mauriac, Jean Cocteau
and 'a very young man who followed Messiaen closely, Pierre Boulez'. (A list at the
end of the Itineraire also mentions Michel Leiris, Raymond Queneau, Charles Dullin,
Jean-Louis Barrault, Henri Dutilleux, Louise de Vilmorin, Paul Claudel, Jose-Maria
Sert and Andre Malraux as distinguished figures who attended the Concerts de la
Pleiade regularly.)
Poulenc was a particularly enthusiastic supporter of the concerts: on 20 August 1943
he wrote to Paul Collaer, describing the series as the only ray of hope for new French
music at the time: 'Only the Concerts de la Pleiade, under the direction of the NRF
have tried to do anything new ... Let's hope things will change for the better.'36
Following the premiere of Visions de l'Amen on 10 May, Messiaen wrote a touching
letter of appreciation to Tual:
Chere Madame,
I want to say a big thank you to you.
You arranged a public concert for me and, above all, gave me the opportunity to write a
long and serious piece, worked on with great care. Rest assured of my gratitude! Please give
Monsieur Tual my warmest regards and accept my renewed and very sincere thanks.37
'TROIS PETITES LITURGIES DE LA PRESENCE DIVINE'

A few months later, in September 1943, Tual contacted Messiaen with the offer of
new commission, originally for another work for two pianos, which was ultimately t
become the Trois petites liturgies de la Presence Divine. The composer replied to Tu
from Neussargues, where he was spending the summer holidays with his family. Th
start of this letter offers a rare glimpse of Messiaen's family life at the time, and h
fatherly pride in watching his young son grow up. He follows this charming famil
vignette with his first thoughts on the new work:
Chere Madame,
Your letter has just reached me in Neussargues (Cantal) where I am coming to the end o
a rather hard-working holiday, mostly spent correcting the proofs [presumably of Visions d
l'Amen].38 My wife is well, and Pascal is in particularly good form: he has grown, and hi
neck and arms are tanned from the fine air and the sunshine. He is interested in a thousan
different things, and runs non-stop!
Thank you for thinking of me again for your concerts. I am very grateful to you and to
M. Gallimard: what kindness!
35 Another photograph of the audience at this concert, reproduced as Plate 29 in Le temps divori, shows Gaston,
Raymond, Claude and Michel Gallimard, Marie-Blanche de Polignac, Roland-Manuel and Christian Dior.
36 Paul Collaer, Correspondance avec des amis musiciens, ed. Robert Wangermee, Sprimont, 1996, p. 369.
38 Though Messiaen appears here to refer to the proofs of Visions de l'Amen, acute paper shortages delayed Durand's
publication of the work until March 1950. The firm's printing ledgers also refer to the reproduction of six copies made
from one manuscript in July 1946. See Nigel Simeone, Oliver Messiaen: a Bibliographical Catalogue of Messiaen's Works,
Tutzing, 1998, pp. 80-83.
561
My specific intention is to write a new suite for two pianos and to offer that to you. I know
it is dangerous to restart something that was a success the first time round, but apart from
two pianos, which I like a great deal, I am only interested in writing for a quartet or a large
orchestra, neither of which is allowed. Aside from the matter of a first performance, I would,
however, have loved to hear my Quatuor pour la fin du temps (violin, clarinet, violoncello and
piano) at the Concerts de la Pleiade. I wrote it while in captivity, and it is one of my best
things!
So, I agree to compose a new work for first performance at the Concerts de la Pleiade
during the 1944 season. But I shall not be able to show it to you before 1 November, as you
wished, because I will only get down to work in October and will scarcely be finished by
1 May, which would fix its performance at one of your last concerts, perhaps at the
beginning of June.39 This work will be written for two pianos, with a similar style, genre and
duration to my Visions de I'Amen. It could be played by Mile Loriod (I don't know of a better
interpreter!) and myself, as we did last season. Finally, as this will be a considerable
undertaking for me, you could pay me 10,000 francs, in two instalments, again as for last
season. (Forgive, please, the implacable precision of this last phrase!)
I return to Paris on 2 October and resume my duties straightaway at the Conservatoire
and at the Trinite. Would you like to send me a note to say that we are in agreement about
these proposals? Write to me at: 13 villa du Danube (13 and not 14!) Paris 19e.40
On 4 October 1943, two days after his return to Paris, Messiaen visited Tual at her
offices in the place de la Madeleine; from the perspective of over half a century later,
her absence was fortuitous, as Messiaen was obliged to write down his current
thinking on the new work, on the headed writing paper of Roland and Denise
Tual's film company Synops. This important letter of 4 October reveals that his
plans had changed dramatically in the space of less than two weeks:
Chere Madame,
I came to Synops this morning in the hope of talking to you at greater length about the
Concerts de la Pleiade. Having been unable to find you, I am writing you this quick note.
I have thought a great deal about the matter of your new commission. The combination
of two pianos, which worked so well last year, and which I originally wanted to use again, is
less attractive to me now, as I am afraid of simply rewriting Visions de l'Amen less well.
So here is another project which supersedes the previous one:
I could write a work of similar character to Amen in terms of style and subject, but it
would be more complex and would also need a much greater number of performers. To
begin with, I would need:
1) A reciter (a speaking male voice)
2) An Ondes Martenot (this is a marvellous radio-electronic instrument, not very
cumbersome, which I am sure you know about!)
3) 3 flutes
4) 3 trombones
5) A piano (a large grand piano, of course)
6) Percussion consisting of: celesta, tam-tam, cymbals and tambourine
7) Ten strings (that is to say, double string quintet comprising 2 first violins, 2 second
violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 2 double basses).
It needs a conductor (Desormieres [sic] would be perfect); for the reciter, J.-L. Barrault.
The piano and the Ondes have very important and difficult parts: the piano could be given
to Mile Loriod, and the Ondes to Mile Martenot, sister of the inventor.
The work will last between fifteen and twenty minutes but will not be finished until 1 May
as I need to complete the poem, the music and the instrumentation.
39 The proposed performance in June 1944 was cancelled (D-Day was on 6 June).
40 Appendix III, letter 5. Two versions of this letter survive in F-Pn, the first of which is given here. The second is
substantially the same (though slightly shorter) and includes a P.S.: 'Ne vous etonnez pas si vous recevez ma lettre 2
fois. Craignant de m'etre trompe une 1ere fois dans l'adresse, je vous renvoie cette copie.' ('Do not be surprised if you
receive this letter twice. Thinking I had got your address wrong the first time, I am sending you this copy.')
562
The work involved is as extensive as before, so we could keep the same arrangements, that
is to say 10,000 francs, in two payments. Would you like to send me a note saying whether
this project would be acceptable?41
Messiaen did not begin composition until November 1943 and, as with Visions de
l'Amen, the work appears to have had no title at this preliminary stage. The letter
reveals fascinating differences of conception in comparison with the work's eventual
form, particularly in its scoring: the surprises include his planned use of three flutes,
three trombones, and, most strikingly, a narration to be spoken by Jean-Louis
Barrault. None of these appears in the work as composed. It is also interesting that
Messiaen seems at this stage to have envisaged a considerably shorter work than that
which was to emerge: the duration of fifteen-twenty minutes given in this letter is less
than half that of the finished piece. Desormiere's recording made at the time of the
premiere has a duration of 30 minutes;42 most later performances and recordings last
several minutes longer. Remarkably, Messiaen includes no mention of the female
choir, presumably envisaging at this stage a spoken text rather than the sung setting
which he was to start composing a few weeks later. However, a number of the
suggestions made in the letter turned out as planned: Desormiere conducted the
premiere with Loriod and Ginette Martenot as soloists, and the eventual scoring
included parts for solo piano and Ondes Martenot, percussion and strings.43
On 2 November Messiaen wrote to Denise Tual, acknowledging receipt of the first
payment for the new commission, and promising to finish it by 15 April in time for a
concert a month later.44 According to Messiaen's own note in the programme for the
first performance, composition of the Trois petites liturgies began a fortnight later, on
15 November 1943 (the date which is also given on the title-page of the published
score). The work was completed on 15 March 1944, a month earlier than predicted in
his letter of 2 November. However, the planned performance in May 1944 did not take
place; a revised date in early June was proposed, for which Messiaen supplied the
programme notes in late April, insisting, as was his usual custom, on absolute
adherence to the format and wording of the text:
Chere Madame,
You will find enclosed all the documents for the programme of our Concert de la Pleiade
(in early June). First the programme proper (titles, subtitles, names of the performers) to be
printed in large type. Then the note on the work which I have written and which can fit-
printed in small type-into the format of one page of your programmes this season (recto
only), or on two pages if you prefer, in large type. In any event do not cut anything in the
programme or the note because I have included only what is indispensable. And if
unfortunately something does not suit you, please telephone me!45
By 15 July 1944, the composer was acknowledging receipt of the second cheque in
part-payment of the commission. His unnamed correspondent is probably Jean-
FranCois Mehu, secretary of the Concerts de la Pleiade.46 Messiaen also refers in
42 This fine performance, originally issued by Path6, has been reissued on CD by Dante, LYS 310.
43 The scoring of the Trois petites liturgies is as follows: female voices 'a l'unisson' (though divided into three parts in
places), piano solo, Ondes Martenot solo, celesta, Chinese cymbal, maracas, tam-tam, vibraphone, 4 violin I, 4 violin
II, 3 violas, 3 cellos and 2 double basses.
46 The last page of the programme for the Concert de la Pleiade on 7 December 1945 lists the following: 'Concerts
de la Pleiade: Andr6 Schaeffner, Denise Tual, Roland Bourdariat. Secretariat: Jean-Francois Mehu'.
563
this letter to the chaotic circumstances in the months before and after the liberation of
Paris which necessitated a further postponement of the premiere:
Cher Monsieur et Ami
I have now received the cheque for 5,000 francs signed by Madame Tual on behalf of t
Librairie Gallimard. Thank you very much.
Of course I am banking on the fact that you will perform my work at the Concerts de l
Pleiade as soon as circumstances permit. And I will leave a photocopy of my score at you
office when I am passing through your district in the next few days.
Thank you again. Please give my respects to Madame Tual when her state of health has
improved.47
Following the liberation of Paris in August 1944, a firm date of 21 April 1945 was
eventually fixed for the premiere-over a year after the work's completion. On 1 April,
Messiaen sent four pages of information for the programme, with a covering note:
Cher Monsieur [?Mehu],

Enclosed is the complete text of my programme for La Pleiade.
Do not change anything; do not cut anything.
The underlined passages should be printed in capital letters for the titles and in italics for
the quotations from the poem.
A thousand thanks.
I will write to M. Lambert with all the details about the orchestral parts.48
Messiaen's instructions were followed precisely: his note on the work was printed in
the programme without changes or cuts. There is, however, an interesting change in
the details of the performers: according to the information supplied by Messiaen, the
voices of the Chorale Yvonne Gouverne were to be joined by a soloist: 'Voix d'Irene
Joachim et Chorale Yvonne Gouveme' is how the composer lists the vocal performers
If Irene Joachim joined the female choir for the first performance, this is not stated
either on the printed programme or in the details of the first recording made at the
same time, and it seems unlikely. However, according to Messiaen's own later
recollection Joachim was in the audience (see below); this was appropriate given her
role as the person who first drew Denise Tual's attention to Messiaen-the 'curious
gentleman'.
The first performance of the Trois petites liturgies de la Presence Divine took place at the
Salle du Conservatoire on Saturday 21 April 1945, in a programme which also
included the premieres of Milhaud's Quatrains valaisans and Poulenc's Un soir de
neige, both performed by the Chorale Yvonne Gouvernm conducted by Fernand Lamy.
Messiaen later noted many distinguished musicians, artists and poets in the audience.
Among the musicians were Arthur Honegger, Andree Vaurabourg (Mme Honegger),
Georges Auric, Francis Poulenc, Henri Sauguet, Roland-Manuel, Andre Jolivet,
Claude Delvincourt, Lazare Levy, Marcel Ciampi, Jean Wiener, Irene Joachim,
Maurice Gendron, Guy-Bernard Delapierre and Jean Roy; among the painters wa
Georges Braque; and among the writers were Paul Eluard and Pierre Reverdy. Several
younger musicians, all pupils in Messiaen's class at the Conservatoire, were present,
including Pierre Boulez, Serge Nigg, Yvette Grimaud, Jean-Louis Martinet and Pierre
Henry.49
48 Appendix III, letter 10. Lambert was presumably an employee of Durand, the publisher of the Trois petites
liturgies.
49 This list is taken from Messiaen's booklet notes for the CD reissue (in the set issued to celebrate his 80th birthday)
of the 1964 recording of the Trois petites liturgies conducted by Marcel Couraud, Erato 2292-45505-02/VII.
564
Messiaen sent a warm note of thanks to Denise Tual three days after the premiere:
Chere Madame,
I want to say a big thank you again for the last Concert de la Pleiade.
I have never had such a fine performance, given in such favourable conditions.
Desormiere was marvellous, unforgettable, and each soloist, and all the orchestra and
choir, were beyond praise. This concert cost you a great deal of effort from every point of
view, and so my gratitude is still greater. It was too beautiful and I am not worthy of all that.
Thank you with all my heart.50
The premiere of the Trois petites liturgies provided a springboard for some lively and
occasionally intemperate discussion of 'Le cas Messiaen' in the French press.51
However, in the first number of La revue musicale to be issued since the journal
ceased publication in 1940, Suzanne Demarquez described the event unequivocally as
'a dazzling success'.52 Poulenc was extremely enthusiastic about the work. On 27 April
1945, less than a week after the first performance, he wrote to Paul Collaer in Brussels
declaring that 'Messiaen has just given a marvellous work at La Pleiade: Trois liturgies
[sic] for chorus and small orchestra which you should do next winter'.53 A few weeks
later, he returned to Messiaen's recent triumphs in another letter to Collaer dated
25 June: 'Messiaen remains the event of the winter, which is well deserved'.54
Two other critical responses are worth quoting at length: those of Roland-Manuel
and Jean Wiener. Roland-Manuel, a friend and disciple of Ravel, and one of the most
respected critics of the time, reviewed the concert in Les lettresfranfaises on 29 April 1945:
Under the title, both modest and forbidding, of Trois petites liturgies de la Presence Divine,
Messiaen presents us with three mystical poems for nine women's voices in unison, celesta,
piano, vibraphone, Ondes Martenot, maracas, gong, tam-tam and string orchestra:
Antienne de la conversation interieure; Sequence du Verbe: Cantique Divin; Psalmodie
de l'ubiquite par amour. The words are by the composer. It must be admitted that this
mystagogic literature, this Balinese orchestra and the commentary in the programme seem
at first to be a dubious mixture, just the thing to antagonize even the most well-disposed
listener. Our music has had trouble avoiding empty twaddle in art-religion and the
picturesque-exotic. So it is delightful when we find them united and combined in the
work of a composer who has so many loyal and committed followers.
This music which is, I think, the most lucid and the most direct that Messiaen has ever
composed, immediately converts us to his viewpoint, because of its irresistible quality of
authenticity. This surprising language seems to become natural and necessary.
So, does it matter to us that Messiaen borrows his instrumentation from Bali, then makes
it his own, and delivers to us a message which is at once personal, overwhelming and new?
Does it matter that in the final 'Psalmodie' some of the percussion writing recalls the
sonority and the distinctive rhythms of Stravinsky's Les noces? The spirit which enlivens these
two works is completely different. But I think it is in the second part of the work, 'Sequence
du Verbe: Cantique Divin', where the magic and the power of this work shine out in their
clearest and purest form. It is the simplest and most marvellous song of triumph.
Messiaen here reveals to us the true secret of his power, which his liking for the worst
51 See, for example, Bernard Gavoty, 'Musique et mystique: le "cas" Messiaen', Les etudes (October 1945), 241-37,
and Gilbert Alphonse-Leduc, 'Reponse a Monsieur Bernard Gavoty', ?privately printed, 1945, [4] pp., which also refers
to an article by Guy-Bernard Delapierre, 'Le cas Messiaen devant la pensee catholique orthodoxe', Confluences, No. 3
(1945).
52 Suzanne Demarquez: 'Panorama de la musique depuis la Liberation', Revue musicale, No. 198 (February-March
1946), 67-71; her brief comments on the Trois petites liturgies are on page 70.
53 Collaer, Correspondance avec des amis musiciens, p. 385 n. 8. Poulenc's initial enthusiasm for Trois petites liturgies may
well have contributed to Collaer's decision to conduct the work for the first time in Brussels a few months later.
54 Ibid., p. 384. As well as the first performance of the Trois petites liturgies, Poulenc was probably referring to the
premiere of Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus, given by Yvonne Loriod at the Salle Gaveau on 26 March 1945.
565
literature and picturesque mystagogy are completely unable to destroy: it is the secret of a
musician, a born melodist, who knows from instinct and from experience that rhythm and
tonality are joined by the deepest roots; that the basis of harmony is consonance. But his ear
has an acuteness which is second to none-it is the ear of an acoustician-and it guides him
in the art of capturing and arranging the fleeting sounds of partials, directing them towards
their poles of attraction. Despite appearances, Olivier Messiaen is much more the master of
harmony than the slave of counterpoint.55
The composer and pianist Jean Wiener was well known for his two-piano partnership
with Clement Doucet (between 1926 and 1939 they gave over two thousand concerts
together), and for his brilliant piano improvisations, many of them broadcast in the
series Et bonjour tout le monde ... which went out live on French radio every day for two
years (1950-51). He later recalled the first performance of the Trois petites liturgies:
In the first place, what constitutes the value of a work of art is authenticity, and what
constitutes authenticity is, above all, conviction and belief. This needs to be kept in mind if
one is to welcome new masterpieces; it is necessary to desire, to facilitate, to encourage and
to love enthusiasm ... I say all this because of the criticism and reproach expressed by some
people about the first performance of the Trois petites liturgies de la Presence Divine . . .
Messiaen's music is a music of love. And all this love is expressed in a completely new
language: new from the point of view of sonority (in the Trois petites liturgies Messiaen uses
celesta, vibraphone, maracas, drums, piano, string orchestra, female chorus and Ondes
Martenot) .. . and new from the point of view of rhythm: Messiaen's rhythmic system is
completely individual and of true richness; it is more Hindu than Stravinskian and includes
more suppleness than violence.
One feels in this music all the affection which Messiaen has for Pelleas, all his harmonic
understanding which was already evident 15 years ago, all the interest he has in poets (above
all in Eluard and Reverdy, I know), all his knowledge of plainchant. But one feels ... that all
this is at the service of his faith. In the end, it is a blaze of stained glass, an extravaganza of
sound and light, a sumptuous work, a work of glory, which arrives fully formed. All that,
however, comes to us straight from the simple heart of Messiaen, from his humility, from his
truthfulness.56
THE PLANNED PREMIERE OF 'HARAWI', AND BEYOND

Several important Messiaen performances took place in Paris during the first half of
1945: as well as the premiere of the Trois petites liturgies, these included the first
performance of Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus, given by Loriod at the Salle Gaveau on
26 March, a semi-private performance of the Quatuor pour la fin du temps on 25 May
under the auspices of 'Les Amis de la Jeune France' at the home of Guy-Bernard
Delapierre (24 rue Visconti) with Messiaen at the piano, and a complete performance
of La nativite du Seigneur given by the composer at the Trinite on 29 May as part of the
'Semaines Musicales FranCaises 1945'. Earlier, on 4 February, L'ascension was
included in a Sunday concert by the Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du
Conservatoire conducted by Charles Munch, at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees,
with an open rehearsal at 10 a.m. the previous day. The programme book describes
this performance as a '1re audition' of L'ascension, though the premiere had taken place
ten years earlier, on 9 February 1935 at the Concerts Siohan.57
In 1945, Messiaen was on the verge of an international career which would take him
not only across mainland Europe and to Great Britain (he first visited London in
55 Original text in Appendix I, item 10.
56 Original text in Appendix I, item 11.
7See Simeone, Olivier Messiaen: a Bibliographical Catalogue, p. 39 and pp. 216-18 (reprinting the original reviews in Le
menestrel and Le courrier musical).
566
1938), but also to the USA, where he was to travel for the first time to supervise the
premiere of the Turangalila-symphonie in 1949. The latter part of 1945 included further
performances of Visions de l'Amen with Loriod (for instance at the Archbishop's Palace
in Rouen on 18 October 1945) and a short but extremely busy visit to London just
before Christmas. On the evening of Wednesday 19 December Messiaen and Loriod
gave a private performance (the first performance in England) of Visions de l'Amen at
the home of Felix Aprahamian in Muswell Hill. Messiaen gave a complete perform-
ance of La nativite du Seigneur at St Mark's Church, North Audley Street, on Thursday
20 December at 6.30 p.m., following this, amazingly, at 8.45 the same evening with a
performance of Visions de l'Amen with Loriod for the BBC. The cyclostyled letter of
invitation for this event (dated 13 December 1945) reads:
The Director of Music of the British Broadcasting Corporation has pleasure in inviting you
to a play-through on two pianos, by the French composer Olivier Messiaen (with Yvonne
Loriod) of his Cycle de l'Amen and excerpts from Les Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus on
Thursday 20th December at 8.30 for 8.45 p.m. in Studio 8A, Broadcasting House. (Please
bring this invitation with you)
The following day (21 December) Messiaen was back at St Mark's for a broadcast
organ recital at 11.30 a.m.; he recorded a BBC interview at 10 a.m. on 22 December.
Loriod gave a short recital at 10.15 a.m. on 23 December and they then returned to
Paris.58
The Concerts de la Pleiade planned one further important Messiaen premiere: the
song cycle Harawi in May 1946, an event referred to by Messiaen in a letter to the
administrators of the Concerts de la Pleiade sent in March 1946:
Cher Monsieur [?Mehu],

[I am] completely in agreement regarding the date [paper missing] in May, in the hall of
the old Conservatoire at 9 p.m., for our Concert de la Pleiade. I am writing by the same post
to Marcelle Bunlet to tell her that this date is confirmed and that no other is possible. She
will certainly be in agreement (since she is free in May).
I agree too regarding the arrangements:
10,000 francs for Bunlet.
For me, nothing, out of gratitude to La Pleiade!
Here is the text of the programme. My work Harawi lasts one hour and a quarter, enough
to fill a concert. I have refrained from any commentary.
It is necessary to put the two pages facing each other, with page 1 on the left (with the
title, the names of the composer and performers, and various indications) and page 2 on the
right (with the subtitles pertaining to the 12 parts of the work.
With many thanks and my renewed gratitude! . . .
P.S. I will definitely be in Paris from 29 April.59
The programme note mentioned by Messiaen in this letter is not among Tual's
papers in the Bibliotheque Nationale. His reasons for 'refraining from any comment-
ary' on Harawi are almost certainly connected with the tragic genesis of the work,
composed as a song of love for his first wife, Claire Delbos, who by 1946 was gravel
ill. (Shortly before Messiaen composed the cycle, Delbos had an operation which went
wrong, resulting in the complete loss of her memory. She was put in an institution,
where she remained until her death in April 1959.) Despite the evidence of the letter
that plans were well advanced for the concert, it never took place, and the premiere
was given by Marcelle Bunlet and Messiaen at Macon on 24 June 1946, with a second
58 Information from documents in the author's collection.
567
performance by the same artists on 27 June in Brussels. It has not been possible to
establish the reasons for the cancellation of the Paris concert, which would have been
the third premiere of a major work by Messiaen at the Concerts de la Pleiade.
After the end of World War II, this remarkable series became less crucial to French
musical life, and the last concert was given on 22 May 1947 at the Theatre des
Champs-Elysees. It included the first performance in Paris of Poulenc's Figure
humaine. Along with Messiaen's Vision de l'Amen and Trois petites liturgies, this was
one of the outstanding works to be composed in France during the Occupation, and
its French premiere at the Concerts de la Pleiade was thus particularly appropriate.
With normal life resumed and, particularly, Gallimard's regular meetings with
authors re-established, the Concerts de la Pleiade lost their rationale, but the title was
revived on one final occasion, with which Messiaen was associated in the improbable
role of competition judge for a ballet score. In 1951 Denise Tual served as Artistic
Director of the Biarritz Festival. She asked Gaston Gallimard if he would be interested
in offering a prize for a new ballet. Gallimard readily agreed to the proposal and an
announcement was duly published for the 'Prix Biarritz 1951' under the auspices of
the Concerts de la Pleiade. The scenario for the ballet, entitled Melos, was written by
Marie-Laure de Noailles and copies were sent to prospective entrants; the competition
was open to all French or foreign composers apart from those who had already
received a state prize (specifically the Prix de Rome). The prize was 200,000 francs,
with a closing date of 15 May 1951, and with a premiere at the Casino Bellevue in
Biarritz on 25 August. Tual recruited a most distinguished jury to award the prize,
including Georges Auric, Henri Barraud, Nadia Boulanger, Roger Desormiere,
Bernard Gavoty, Arthur Honegger, Roland-Manuel, Olivier Messiaen, the Comtesse
Jean de Polignac, Francis Poulenc, Claude Rostand, Henri Sauguet, Andre Schaeffner
and Pierre Souvchinsky. Many of these names had been associated with the Concerts
de la Pleiade, and the prize was awarded to Leo Preger (a Boulanger pupil, born at
Ajaccio in 1907), whose earlier Cantate had been performed at the Concerts de la
Pleiade on 7 June 1943.60 The scoring of the ballet-for small orchestra (no more than
25 players) and a solo soprano-was specified in the competition rules, as was a
duration of twenty minutes. A private performance of Preger's Melos was given at the
Hotel Lambert on two pianos (played by Genevieve Joy and the composer, with
Denise Duval as the solo soprano) on 26 June, in a concert which also included
extracts from Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tiresias sung by Duval with Poulenc at the
piano. Tual described this occasion in her Itineraire as 'an evening which crowned the
initiative of Gaston Gallimard, started eleven years [actually nine years] earlier in
secret'.61
Messiaen worked again with Denise Tual in the early 1970s. On this occasion she
was in her professional role as a cineaste and the result was the documentary film Olivier
Messiaen et les oiseaux with its priceless footage of the composer's class at the Con-
servatoire, notably his analysis of the opening scene from Debussy's Pelleas et
Melisande.62 This film was a fitting coda to what Tual described in her Itineraire as
perhaps the greatest achievement of the wartime concerts: 'Above all', she wrote, 'the
Concerts de la Pleiade had revealed the most significant contemporary musician of our
age: Olivier Messiaen'.63
60 When I interviewed Denise Tual, I asked if she could account for the fact that Pr6ger's name is now entirely
forgotten. She remarked that 'perhaps he didn't have much talent after all'. 61 Tual, Itinirarie, f. 18.
62 A transcript of the filmed analysis of Pelleas is printed in Boivin, La classe de Messiaen, pp. 214-23.
63 Tual, Itineraire, f. 17.
568
But it can readily be seen from the complete programmes of the Concerts de la
Pleiade that these concerts were more than occasions for important premieres by living
French composers. In her Itineraire, Denise Tual described them as events of light and
of hope. After the triumph of Messiaen [the first performance of Visions de l'Amen] they
became, to the immense delight of Gaston Gallimard, occasions where you 'had to
be'.64 They were, especially in 1943-4, a musical affirmation of Frenchness-an
affirmation which ranged in terms of repertory from the Renaissance and the Baroque
to the twentieth century-of outstanding artistic quality. This was a difficult and
dangerous undertaking in occupied Paris, and one which justifiably earned the
support of many of the foremost musical, literary and artistic figures in France
during 'les annees noires'.
64 Ibid., f. 7.
569
APPENDIX I
Documentation Relating to the Concerts de la Pleiade
1Denise Tual, Itineraire des Concerts de la Pleiade, F-Pn, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (1)
Depuis le debut de la guerre, on avait supprime a la NRF les reunions
mercredi. En ces temps de guerre, ces rendez-vous auraient pu etre interpr
manifestations trop futiles. De plus, depuis l'Occupation, on hesitait a reuni
personnes de peur qu'il ne se glisse dans le groupe quelque indesirable.
Petit a petit les relations se distendaient, le contact si necessaire aux edite
ecrivains s'espacait, et Gaston voulait trouver un pretexte valable pour reun
auteurs et maintenir des rapports.
Les yeux mi-clos, il s'adressa a moi pour lui suggerer une idee qui permett
de retrouver ce climat, et il me dit: 'a propos, vous n'auriez pas une idee vo
J'avais bien une idee de rencontre, la musique.
Les Allemands venaient d'interdire aux orchestres et aux solistes de jou
inedites de musiciens francais dans les salles de concert. C'etait une revanche assez
comique; en effet, en 14-18, les Francais avaient interdit que l'on joue des oeuv
compositeurs Allemands.
Pourquoi ne pas reagir et convier des ecrivains, en nombre restreint, sous pretexte de
jouer des oeuvres musicales nouvelles de jeunes compositeurs ne pouvant se faire ente
librement, et leur faire des commandes pour ces reunions intimes.
J'exposais ce projet a Gaston Gallimard. Il n'etait pas particulierement musicien ma
s'enthousiasma pour l'idee. Cependant, avant de donner son accord, il prit l'avis de G
installe dans le Midi, et qui donna sa benediction. La musique, pour braver les a
noires, etait plus facile a imaginer qu'a realiser. Ces temps de guerre creaient des dis
entre les uns et les autres, et le moindre eloignement devenait un obstacle extremem
serieux. J'allais rencontrer les memes difficultes avec les compositeurs, celles que renc
aussi Gaston Gallimard avec ses auteurs eparpilles dans le monde.
2 Tual, Itineraire, ff. 2-3

Andre Schaeffner, musicologue reconnu, devint mon collaborateur. A cette e
Schaeffner travaillait au Musee de l'Homme, aux cotes du Professeur Rivet et de
Leiris, et il faisait partie du reseau de Resistance du Musee de l'Homme. Roger Desorm
lui, faisait egalement partie d'un autre reseau de resistants.
Comme j'ai deja indique, les Allemands avaient interdit toute nouvelle expre
musicale francaise. Ils avaient aussi banni tous les musiciens qui n'etaient pas ren
France, comme Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, Prokofiev, et ceux qui residaient en zone
comme Georges Auric, Francis Poulenc, Jean Francaix.
Les communications etaient difficiles, et une longue annee de recherches serait ne
saire. Gaston Gallimard, pour faire vivre le projet, lui donna un titre: 'Les Concerts
Pleiade'. Le budget fut etabli. Un lieu fut trouve.
Il fallait eviter les salles de concert a cause des ordonnances allemandes qui allaient co
tout rassemblement de plus de trente a quarante personnes, sans autorisation speciale
Directeur de la Galerie Charpentier, Monsieur Nacenta, se montra l'homme de la situ
il comprit les avantages intellectuels de l'entreprise et osa se mettre sa Galerie a
disposition.
Le plan des programes fut etabli de la maniere suivante: une oeuvre classique peu jo
ou meme inconnue, une ou plusieurs premieres auditions de jeunes musiciens, e
oeuvre d'un musicien etranger, donc interdit, comme Stravinsky, ou de musiciens en
libre comme Poulenc ou Auric. L'organisation necessita de longs mois.
Je m'adressais tout d'abord a 1'ecole de Nadia Boulanger et j'y trouvais Jean Franca
Michel Ciry. Le plus difficile fut de trouver des oeuvres ecrites, pretes a etre donne
premiere audition, mais le bouche a oreille fonctionna. Une grande part de hasa
permit d'entrer en contact avec des musiciens que je ne connaissais pas personnellem
570
Je demandais a Charles Munch et a Roger Desormiere de diriger mais ils se recuserent,
Maurice Hewitt accepta ... Enfin, le premier concert de la Pleiade fut annonce, un an plus
tard, le 8 Fevrier 1943, a la Galerie Charpentier. II proposait Maurice Hewitt comme Chef
d'Orchestre. Quelque temps avant, nous etions en plein chaos. Hewitt venait d'etre arrete
par la Gestapo.
3 Jean Francaix, letter to Denise Tual given in Tual, Itineraire, f. 4.

J'ai appris avec etonnement l'enlevement de notre Chef d'Orchestre, mais a Paris on ne
s'etonne de rien! et j'ai une reaction terriblement egoiste: que va-t-il advenir des
manuscrits et des materiels de mon Divertissement, et de mes trois epigrammmes
demeures chez lui? S'il n'y a pas de scelles, suivant l'agreable mode actuelle, consentir-
iez-vous a me rendre le tres grand service de m'aider a les recuperer? Je travaille toujours
a mon opera-comique et accumuler les double-croches est toujours ma maladie, a tort ou
a raison, on n'en sait rien.
4 Rudolph Dunbar, 'The News from Paris, I', Tempo, No. 9 (December 1944), 15-16.
During the height of this artistic resistance movement, a society of momentous importance
was formed by the name of 'La Pleiade'. It was organized and financed by the proprietor of
the Nouvelle Revue Franfaise as a manifestation of the importance of French music. The
Committee, under its president, Madame D. Roland Tual, decided that it was time to
protest, and to protest vigorously, against German propaganda. Beginning in February 1943,
'La Pleiade' gave a cycle of ten concerts all consisting of works by French composers. At
each concert there were always two new works commissioned by the Society. Rehearsals did
not present any difficulties because the society paid lucratively for them. Plate, a Comedy-
Ballet by Jean Philippe Rameau, which had not been produced since the first performance
in March 1745 at the Theatre de la Grande-Ecurie at Versailles, was given by this society
with nine rehearsals. The manuscript was found in the library of the Opera. The
presentation of Platee cost 120,000 frs.
These concerts were private and admission was by invitation. Only those interested in
French art were invited, therefore the Germans were automatically rebuffed. Like all other
manifestations of this nature, the activities of 'La Pleiade' were not wholly smooth. Although
the Germans were not invited the draft programmes had to be shown to them in order to
obtain permission to buy newsprint. The first two concerts passed without comment, but on
the occasion of the third, which was signally conspicuous, they asked why they were not
invited. With discriminating nicety the Germans were told that it was purely a French
manifestation and, after all, German programmes did not include French music. The
Germans admitted this to be true; they were not interested in French music because there
were no good French musicians.
The intrinsic value of 'La Pleiade' was a tremendous asset to the arts and it brought about
a reunion of the intellectual public in Paris. The society appeared on the scene at a time
when those who were responsible for the mantle of French culture had started to indulge in
the gloomiest forebodings. French art seemed to have been lost; writers met at each others'
homes since there was no other meeting place. Poets and musicians were thus brought
together as never before in France, and they found a reciprocal friendship with each other.
'Spiritual things and spiritual men', says Spelman, 'are correlative, and cannot in reason be
divided'. 'La Pleiade' produced unknown composers-Jean-Jacques Grunenwald for
example, whose Concert d'Ete for piano and strings was given. Another young composer
'La Pleiade' brought out was Michel Ciry. He is a distinguished painter who has only
recently turned to music. He wrote for the society a song for baritone and piano, a quintet
for piano and strings, and a Petite Suite for orchestra. Ciry is now going to devote his time to
composition. A public concert at the Salle Gaveau for writers and musicians who are
prisoners of war raised a large sum. The society was formed in February 1943 with 200
people; in April 1944, when it closed temporarily on account of the inevitable chaos and
uncertainty, the names of 800 members were enrolled. Two concerts scheduled for June
were cancelled on account of the invasion.
571
5 Marcelle Auclair, 'Ma semaine a Paris', Marie-Claire (undated cutting), F-Pn, Res. Vm.
dos. 70 (23)
On commente avec frenesie ces Concerts de la Pleiade qui ont lieu a la Galerie Charpentier.
En ces temps oiu on achete le beurre chez le boucher, la viande chez le coiffeur, et le sucre
chez le cordonnier, les concerts a la mode ont lieu dans une galerie de tableaux. On y
accede uniquement par invitations. C'est une injure personnelle que de n'etre pas convie.
Madame Colette arrive a bicyclette, dans son tailleur sport, chaussee de sandales et coiffee
d'un canotier. Elle vient du Palais-Royal parce-que c'est tout plat, nous confie-t-elle.
6 Tony Aubin, undated cutting from Comoedia, F-Pn, Res Vm. dos. 70 (23)
Le groupement 'La Pleiade' vient de terminer sa saison par des concerts publics donnes
chez Gaveau au benefice des ecrivains et musiciens prisonniers. Cela est parfait. Seances
pleines d'attraits et d'enseignements. Programmes concus selon la politique de ce groupe-
ment, que j'approuve en ce qu'il joue de la musique vivante, et que je desapprouve parfois
quant aux choix de cette musique. Public surprenant par la puissance des ses passions et la
fragilite de ses raisonnements. Public f6minin en un mot, tout charmant, de l'intuition, de
l'inconsequence, un sens et un besoin profonds du superficiel, et peu de cervelle sous
d'etonnants chapeaux ...
Poulenc, Sauguet, Francaix, Messiaen, il y a un mois: tels sont les auteurs vivants
presentes par la Pleiade. Debussy, Ravel, voila les classiques de la maison ... Maintenant, je
vais dire une chose que je trouve grave: La Pleiade s'est propose de faire des concerts de
musique francaise. Eh bien, dans ses programmes de musique francaise n'ont jamais figure
ni Roussel, ce qui est une injustice, ni Pieme, ce qui est une sottise, ni Faure, ce qui est un
crime.
Par contre, M. Igor Stravinsky a triomphe en long et en large, en dieze et en bemol, avec
tous ses pianos, toutes ses cordes. Il faut essayer de dire une fois la verite. M. Stravinsky
n'est francais, ni de race, ni de naissance, ni de formation, ni d'esthetique, ni de pensee, ni
de langage, ni d'inspiration, ni de savoir . . . En faire un compositeur francais, c'est
l'aberration mentale d'une societe privee de logique et de culture. II n'a nul besoin de ce
titre. Et nous devons le reserver a ceux qui, ayant aime et travaille avant nous et pour nous,
nous ont livre le secret de leur coeur et donne le gout de l'amour et du travail.
7 Denise Tual, Le temps devore, Paris, 1980, p. 195.

Le soir meme j'ecrivais a Olivier Messiaen, et recus par retour une reponse tres aimable, sur
un morceau de papier jauni, qui me fixait un rendez-vous dans les jours suivants, a la
Trinite, devant la porte menant a l'escalier de l'orgue.
Je m'attendais a rencontrer un homme tres jeune et plutot 'zazou'. J'en etais restee aux
compositeurs d'avant-guerre, a l'elegance de Desormiere, a l'excentricite d'un Varese. Je
me trouvais devant un homme d'eglise . . . Il me fit asseoir a ses cotes sur le banc de
l'instrument. La conversation s'engagea a voix basse. Il etait visiblement intimide. Sa
figure s'eclaira lorsque je lui exposai le but de ma visite. Une commande? II s'epanouis-
sait.
8 Tual, Itineraire, f. 6
A la livraison du manuscrit, j'insistai pour que Schaeffner et Gallimard assistent a l'audition
privee des Visions de l'Amen. Ils etaient mal disposes, m'accusant de vouloir introduire la
musique liturgique dans les concerts.
C'est dans cette ambiance aussi peu propice qu'arriverent les deux interpretes. Ils
s'assisent devant le piano et Olivier Messiaen annonca d'une voix triste 'Les Visions de
l'Amen'. Tres vite les visages se firent serieux, tendus, les regards se leverent en direction des
pianistes.
Lorsqu'ils plaquerent les derniers accords, il y eut un tres long silence. Messiaen pensait
que nous detestions son oeuvre. Notre reaction se fit enfin si enthousiaste qu'un large
sourire eclaira son visage et celui de son eleve Yvonne Loriod.
572
9 Tual, Le temps devore, p. 197
Lorsque j'annoncais aux musiciens de notre entourage que Messiaen etait inscrit aux
Concerts de la Pleiade, ce fut un tolle. Poulenc esquissa en pouffant de rire la silhouette
d'une nonne les bras croises sur son ventre chantant un Ave Maria; Sauguet haussa
legerement les sourcils; Desormiere qui avait facilement le nez en l'air prit une expression
chagrine. Je poursuivis ma demarche decidee a la mener a bien contre vents et marees.
10 Roland-Manuel, review of the first performance of the Trois petites liturgies in Les lettres
franfaises, 29 April 1945, given in booklet notes to Dante Lys 310 (CD reissue of Desormiere's
recording of the work), 23.
Sous le titre a la fois modeste et intimidante de Trois Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine,
Messiaen nous offre trois poemes mystiques pour neuf voix de femmes a l'unisson, celesta,
piano, vibraphone, onde Martenot, maracas, gong, tam-tam et orchestra a cordes: Antienne
de la conversation interieure; Sequence du Verbe: Cantique Divin; Psalmodie de l'ubiquite
par amour. Les paroles sont du compositeur. Pourquoi ne pas le dire? Cette litterature
mystagogique, cet orchestre balinais et les commentaires du programme composent a
l'abord un melange suspect, bien fait pour indisposer l'auditeur le plus bienveillant.
Notre musique a eu assez de mal a se debarrasser des obscures fadaises de l'art religion
et de l'appareil du pittoresque exotique pour qu'on prenne allegrement son parti de les
retrouver unis et conjugues dans l'oeuvre d'un compositeur qui entrafne et engage avec tant
de disciples.
Cette musique qui est, je pense, la plus claire et la plus directe qu'Olivier Messiaen ait
jamais composee, nous convertit immediatement a ses vues parce qu'elle a le caractere
irresistible de l'authenticite. Ce langage surprenant nous paraft naturel et necessaire.
Que nous importe des lors que Messiaen emprunte aux Balinais les procedes d'une
instrumentation qu'il fait sienne et qui nous delivre un message a la fois personnel,
bouleversant et nouveau? Que nous importe que dans la Psalmodie finale certains effets
de percussion rencontrent la sonorite et la rythmique particuliere des Noces de Stravinsky?
L'esprit qui anime chacun des deux ouvrages est completement different. Mais c'est, je
crois, dans la seconde partie de l'oeuvre, Sequence du Verbe, Cantique Divin, que le
charme et la puissance de l'oeuvre se manifestent dans le plus clair et le plus pur de leur
eclat. C'est ici le plus simple et le plus merveilleux chant de triomphe.
Messiaen nous y revele le vrai secret de sa puissance, que son penchant pour la pire
litterature et le pittoresque mystagogique sont bien impuissants a detruire: c'est le secret
d'un musicien, melodiste-ne, qui sait d'instinct et d'experience que le rythme et la tonalite
sont lies par de profondes racines; que la basse de l'harmonie est la consonance; mais une
oreille d'une acuite sans seconde-une oreille d'acousticien-la dirige dans l'art de capter et
de fixer le caprice des sons partiels et de les orienter vers leurs poles d'attraction. Car malgre
certaines apparences, Olivier Messiaen est beaucoup plus le maitre de l'harmonique que
l'esclave de contrepoint.
11 Jean Wiener, 'A propos d'une premiere audition d'Olivier Messiaen', given in Portrait(s)
d'Olivier Messiaen, ed. Catherine Massip, Paris, 1996, pp. 15-16
Ce qui fait, tout d'abord, la valeur d'une oeuvre d'art, c'est son authenticite, et ce qui, avant
tout, fait l'authenticite, c'est la conviction, la croyance: ce qui revient a dire que si l'on
souhaite de nouveaux chefs-d'oeuvre, il faut desirer, faciliter, encourager, aimer l'enthou-
siasme . . . Je dis tout cela a cause des critiques et reproches exprimes par certains, au sujet
de la premiere audition des Trois Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine . . . La musique de
Messiaen est une musique d'amour. Et tout cet amour s'exprime dans une langue toute
nouvelle: nouvelle du point de vue sonorite (dans les Trois Petites Liturgies, Messiaen emploie
le celesta, la vibraphone, les maracas, des tambours, un piano, un orchestre a cordes, un
choeur de femmes et les ondes Martenot) . . . Nouvelle, du point de vue rythmique: le
systeme rythmique d'Olivier Messiaen est d'une absolue personnalite et d'une vrai richesse;
il est plus hindoue que stravinskyste et comporte plus de souplesse que de violence.
On sent dans cette musique toute la tendresse de Messiaen pour Pelleas, toute la science
573
harmonique qui se manfiestait chez lui, deja, il y a quinze ans, tout l'interet qu'il porte aux
poetes (surtout a Eluard et a Reverdy, je le sais), toute sa connaissance du plain-chant, mais
on sent . .. que tout cela est au service de sa foi, finalement c'est un flamboiement des
vitraux, une feerie de lumiere et de sons, une oeuvre somptueuse, une oeuvre de gloire, qui
nous arrivent en pleine figure. Tout cela, cependant, vient a nous, tout droit du coeur simple
de Messiaen, de son humilite, de sa verite.
574
APPENDIX II
Programmes of the Concerts de la Pleiade, 1943-7
This list has been compiled from three collections of programme books for the
Pleiade: (1) the collection which forms part of Tual's papers in F-Pn Res. Vm. d
complete run either of original programmes or of photocopies; (2) an incomple
programmes in F-Pn, without shelfmark; (3) a group of ten programmes i
collection.
Abbreviations and symbols:

bar: baritone; bn: bassoon; cond.: conductor; OCH: Orchestre de Chambre Maurice Hewitt; OSCC: Orchestre de
la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire; perc: percussion; pf: piano; sax: saxophone; ten: tenor; trbn: trombone;
vn: violin; *world premiere; **Paris premiere
8 February 1943, Galerie Charpentier

Guillaume Costeley [attrib.]: Le joly mois de May
Clement Janequin: Le chant des oiseaux
Claude Le Jeune: La belle aronde
Pierre Passereau: Il est bel et bon, commere, mon mary
Claude Debussy: Trois chansons de Charles d'Orleans
Jean Franqaix: Divertissement* (Georges Grandmaison, bn; OCH, cond. Maurice Hewitt)
Francis Poulenc: Sept chansons
Igor Stravinsky: Soucoupes: quatre chants paysans russes**
Maurice Ravel: Trois chansons (Chorale Emile Passani)
22 March 1943, Galerie Charpentier

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Chaconne from Les Indes galantes
Jean-Philippe Rameau: 4 airs from Les Indes galantes (Jacques Jansen, ten)
Michel Ciry: Suite for 11 instruments*
Emile Damais: Apparition* (Irene Joachim, sop)
Gabriel Faure: Pleurs d'or (Irene Joachim, sop; Jacques Jansen, ten; Irene Aitoff, pf)
Georges Auric: Cinq bagatelles
Maurice Delage: Quatre poemes hindoues (Irene Joachim, sop)
Igor Stravinsky: Apollon musagete
OCH, cond. Maurice Hewitt1
3 May 1943, Galerie Charpentier

Emmanuel Chabrier: Trois valses romantiques (Jean Franqaix, Soulima Stravinsky, pfs)
Michel Ciry: Madame de Soubise* (Paul Derenne, ten; Francis Poulenc, pf)
Erik Satie: Trois morceaux en forme de poire (Simone Tilliard, Francis Poulenc, pf)
Francis Poulenc: Cocardes (Paul Derenne, ten; Roger Benedetti, vn; Albert Adriano, cornet;
Andre Bernard, trbn; Felix Passerone, perc)
Igor Stravinsky: Concerto for 2 pianos (Franqaix, S. Stravinsky, pfs)
10 May 1943, Galerie Charpentier

Olivier Messiaen: Visions de l'Amen* (Yvonne Loriod, pf 1; Olivier Messiaen, pf 2)
' The arias from Les Indes galantes replaced Les colchiques by Raymond Gallois-Montbrun, the first performance of
which was announced on the original programme. Before the concert, a slip of paper was pasted into the programme
book, substituting the Rameau arias. Of the lesser-known composers on this programme, Michel Ciry (born 31 August
1919), was already enjoying a career as an artist and book illustrator when he became a pupil of Nadia Boulanger.
Emile Damais (born 4 March 1906) was a pupil of Andre Caplet and, later, of Charles Koechlin. He had a successful
career as a conductor in Le Havre before being taken prisoner during World War II. While in captivity at Stalag IIB, he
composed several works, including Apparition.
575
7 June 1943, Galerie Charpentier
FranCois Couperin: L'imperiale
Leo Preger: Cantate** (Suzanne Balguerie, sop, Georges Cathelat, ten)
Claude Debussy: Rapsodie for saxophone and orchestra (Marcel Mule, sax)
Erik Satie: Socrate
Alcibiade et Phedre: Helene Bouvier
Socrate: Irene Joachim
Phedon: Suzanne Balguerie
OCH, cond. Maurice Hewitt
21 June 1943, Salle Gaveau: 'au benefice des ecrivains et musiciens prisonniers'
Claude Debussy: Trois chansons de Charles d'Orleans (Chorale Emile Passani)
Claude Debussy: Le promenoir des deux amants (Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc)
Francis Poulenc: Sonata for violin and piano* (Ginette Neveu, Francis Poulenc)
Francis Poulenc: Sept chansons (Chorale Emile Passani)
Maurice Ravel: Trois poemes de Stephane Mallarme (Pierre Berac, OCH, cond. Maurice
Hewitt)
Maurice Ravel: Trois chansons (Chorale Emile Passani)
28 June 1943, Salle Gaveau: 'au benefice des ecrivains et musiciens prisonniers'
Jean Franqaix: Concertino for piano (Jean Franqaix, pf)
Henri Sauguet: Les ombres du jardin**
L'Argentine: Jeanine Micheau
La recitante: Gemaine Zevort
Le garde-champetre: Henri-Bernard Etcheverry
Le berger: Pierre Nougarro
Le jardinier: Georges Joatte
Les grenouilles grecques: Leonard, Hoche, Bousquet, Lecot
Francis Poulenc: Chansons villageoises* (Roger Bourdin, bar)
Igor Stravinsky: Apollon musagete
OCH, cond. Maurice Hewitt
1 March 1944, Salle du Conservatoire

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Platee2
Platee: Paul Derenne
L'Amour-La Folie: Jeanine Micheau
Thalie-Clarine: Genevieve Touraine
Thespis-Mercure: Georges Cathelat
Momus (Prologue)-Citheron: Camille Maurane
Jupiter: Jacques Bastard
Momus (ballet): Bernard Lefort
Chorale Yvonne Gouverre
Clavecin: Marcelle de Lacour
OSCC, cond. Fernand Lamy
4 April 1944, Salle du Conservatoire

Jean-Jacques Grunenwald: Concert d'ete* (Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, pf)3
Andre Jolivet: Poemes intimes* (Pierre Berac, bar)
Francis Poulenc: Aubade (Francis Poulenc, pf)
2 This was the first performance in modem times of Platee, following its rediscovery in the Bibliotheque Nat
Roger Desormiere. In her Itiniraire, Tual comments that 'the work was particularly well received by the audie
that the concert 'remains one of the highlights of the Concerts de la Pleiade' (f. 11).
3 In her Itineraire, Tual explains her reason for choosing a work by Jean-Jacques Grunenwal
Grunenwald? Because I had just finished the production of the film Les anges du pechi by Bresson-which
the grand prix du cinema in 1944-and we had entrusted its score to the same Grunenwald, a great speci
religious music' (f. 11).
576
Maurice Ravel: Ma mere l'oye
OSCC, cond. Andre Cluytens
13 June 1944, Salle du Conservatoire

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Suite from Dardanus
Georges Bizet: Symphony No. 1
Igor Stravinsky: Les noces
E. Schenneberg, N. Wechtor, J. Peyro, Monde (solo voices)
Chorale Yvonne Gouverne
Monique Haas, Soulima Stravinsky, Irene Aitoff, Francis Poulenc (pfs)
OSCC, cond. Charles Munch
21 April 1945, Salle du Conservatoire

Josquin Desprez: Petite camusette
Clement Janequin: Petite nymphe folastre; Du beau tetin, from Les cris de Paris
Claude Le Jeune: 'Revecy venir du printans'; 'S'ebahit-on si je vous ayme', 'L'ete rallum
les feux'
Andre Caplet: Inscriptions champetres
Darius Milhaud: Quatrains valaisans*
Francis Poulenc: Un soir de neige*
Chorale Yvonne Gouveme, cond. Fernand Lamy
Olivier Messiaen: Trois petites liturgies de la Presence Divine*
Yvonne Loriod (pf)
Ginette Martenot (Ondes Martenot)
Chorale Yvonne Gouveme
OSCC, cond. Roger Desormiere
23 November 1945, Salle du Conservatoire

FranCois Couperin: La tenebreuse, allemande; Les fauvetes plaintives; Les idees heureuses
Gamier; L'engageante; La lugubre, sarabande; La superbe, ou La Forqueray (Made
Lioux, pf)
Benjamin Britten: Les illuminations (Georges Jouatte, ten; Madeleine Lioux, pf)4
Erik Satie: Fete donnee par les Chevaliers Normands en l'honneur d'une jeune demoiselle;
Trois gnossiennes (No. 3); Pieces froides; Airs a faire fuir (Nos. 1 & 2); Trois gymnopedies
(No. 3); Trois nocturnes (No. 3); Sonatine bureaucratique (Madeleine Lioux, pf)
Benjamin Britten: Suite** (Michele Auclair, vn; Madeleine Lioux, pf)
7 December 1945, Salle du Conservatoire

Yves Baudrier: Symphony*
Darius Milhaud: Concerto for two pianos** (Ina Marika and Genevieve Joy, pfs)
Igor Stravinsky: Scenes de ballet*
OSCC, cond. Roger Desormiere5
4 The pianist Madeleine Lioux was the widow of Roland Malraux; she was later to marry her brother-in-law, Andre
Malraux. This concert is of particular interest for the two works by Britten. Britten and Pears had visited liberated Paris
in March 1945: they gave a concert in the Salle du Conservatoire on 13 March 1945 which included the Seven Sonnets of
Michelangelo and four arrangements of French folksongs. (According to the programme, it was arranged 'en l'honneur
de MM. Benjamin Britten & Peter Pears' by the Association Francaise d'Action Artistique.) The Concert de la Pleiade
was among the first in Paris to include performances of Britten by French musicians.
5 The programme book includes notes by all three composers on their own works, each with a facsimile signature
printed in red. The commentary by Yves Baudrier (a founder member with Messiaen, Jolivet and Daniel-Lesur of La
Jeune France) on his symphony includes the information that it was conceived entirely during the last months of the
Occupation and finished after the liberation. Baudrier adds: 'It is natural that the composer's sensibility and, through
that, the structure of the work itself, should be profoundly influenced by these events. But it is in no sense programme
music.' Baudrier dedicated to his symphony to Roger Desormiere.
577
[May 1946, Salle du Conservatoire]
Olivier Messiaen: Harawi* (Marcelle Bunlet, sop; Olivier Messiaen, pf)6
21 November 1946, Theatre des Champs-Elys6es

Manuel de Falla: Suite No. 1 from El sombrero de tres picos
Carlos Chavez: Concerto for 4 horns and orchestra**
Jean Fran;aix: La douce France*
Igor Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements**
Orchestre de la Radiodiffusion Francaise, cond. Roger Desormiere
13 February 1947, Theatre des Champs-Elysees

Igor Markevitch: Suite from the ballet Rebus
Serge Nigg: Concerto for piano, string orchestra and percussion**7
Sergey Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5**
Orchestre Nationale [of Radiodiffusion Francaise], cond. Roger Desormiere
22 May 1947, Theatre des Champs-Elysees

Guillaume Dufay: 2 hymns: 'Veni Creator Spiritus'; 'Aures ad nostras deitatis preces'
Johannes Ockeghem: Sanctus and Benedictus from the Missa 'Mi-mi'
Josquin Baston: 'Een ghilde ient reet laest naer Ghent' ('La ghilde recemment a ch
rendit a Gand')
Anon. (16th century): 'Ic seg adiu' ('Je dis adieu')
Gerard de Turnhout: 'Guy jeyskens' ('Vous, jeunes filles')
Henry Barraud: Le testament de Franfois Villon* (Yvon Le Marc'Hadour, bar; Maro
Marc'Hadour, hpd)
Francis Poulenc: Figure humaine**
Choeur des emissions flamandes de la Radiodiffusion Nationale Belge, cond. Paul
(Poulenc), Jan van Bouwel (other works)
6 Though the planning for this concert reached quite an advanced stage (see Messiaen's letter of March
Appendix III, letter 12), it did not take place.
7 According to the programme, Nigg's concerto is dedicated to his teacher, Messiaen. No soloist is identified
seems likely to have been the composer.
578
APPENDIX III
Original Texts of Letters from Olivier Messiaen to Denise Tual (Nos.

from Yvonne Loriod to Nigel Simeone (No. 13)
In the following transcriptions, the form of Messiaen's home addresses and

letters has been standardized, as has the position of the addresses and dates on
titles of works have been italicized. Messiaen's habitual use of single and doubl
words has been suppressed in the interests of clear presentation. Messiaen gen
an 'Onde Martenot' rather than using the more common spelling of 'Ond
unusual spelling of the instrument is retained here (though not in the English
the letters are handwritten; the autographs of Messiaen's letters are in Tual
Loriod's letter is in the files of the present author.
To Denise Tual, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 1

13 villa du Danube, Paris 19
tel: Botzaris 16-34
26 decembre 1942
Chere Madame,
Nous sommes parfaitement d'accord sur tous points.
Je vous ecris une oeuvre pour 2 pianos; vous la donnez a votre 3e concert.
Je touche pour cela dix mille francs et j'ai bien recu votre cheque en accompte de quatre
mille fr. (Entre parentheses, vous me l'avez envoye barre, ce qui est parfait, mais au porteurs
mon nom n'etant pas mentionne, je ne sais pas si on peut le toucher ainsi-ne vous
inquietez pas, s'il y avait une difficulte, je vous le ferais savoir).
J'ai deja passe un apres-midi de 5 heures chez Monsieur Dubois et j'etais ravi. J'y
retrouverais regulierement des le 4 Janvier, car je quitte Paris pour 8 jours-sans oublier
pour cela notre travail; au contraire, j'emporte mes notes avec moi pour y reflechir.
Je tiens a vous remercier encore, chere Madame, pour tant de bontes, de facilites
accordees a mon travail. Croyez, je vous prie, a mon respectueux devouement et a toute
ma reconnaissance.
Olivier Messiaen
2 To Denise Tual, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 2

Carte pneumatique addressed to: Mme Denise Roland Tual, 9 rue de Beaujolais, Paris 1e
13 villa du Danube, Paris 19e
17 mars 1943
Chere Madame,
Mon oeuvre est finie. En voici titre et sous-titres: Visions de l'Amen pour 2 pianos. I. Am
de la Creation. II. Amen des etoiles, de la planete a l'anneau. III. Amen de l'agonie
Jesus. IV. Amen du Desir. V. Amen des anges, des saints, du chant des oiseaux. VI. Amen
du jugement. VII Amen de la Consommation.
Dans 15 jours j'aurai termine une 1 re copie que je donnerai a Mlle. Loriod afin que nou
puissions tout de suite commencer a repeter ensemble. Je suis a votre entiere disposition
pour la redaction du programme: car il faut a cette oeuvre un commentaire litteraire et
musical assez developpe.
L'oeuvre est de proportions considerables: cela dure au total 40 minutes, presque 45! El
est tres caracteristique de style et doit en consequence etre placee au milieu du concert: il
impossible de commencer par elle.
Croyez, chere Madame, a mes remerciements: vous m'avez permis d'entreprendre ce gr
travail et de le terminer. Avec mon immense et respectueux reconnaissance.
Olivier Messiaen
579
adresse jusqu'au 30 Avril:
chez Mile Agnes Messiaen
Fuligny-par-Ville-sur-Terre (Aube)
18 avril 1943
Chere Madame,
Vous trouverez ci-jointe une liste de 50 noms et adresses. II s'agit des personnes que je
desire voir inviter au concert de la Pleiade (10 Mai).
Etant donne: que je n'ai mis la que le strict necessaire parmi les nombreux eleves et amis
qui veulent entendre ma 1ere audition et m'en parle deja plusieurs fois; que la salle sera plus
vaste qu'aux concerts precedants, puisque l'emplacement en est different; enfin, que
plusieurs de ces noms sont ceux d'amis communs a vous et a moi-je pense que vous
pouvez inviter tous ces gens-la et vous en remercie de tout coeur.
Je vous signale, en plus, que ma femme et mon fils figurent dans la liste-surtout ne
les oubliez pas! Il faut penser aussi que les 2 pianistes (Mlle Loriod et moi-meme) et les
deux toumeurs de pages (car il faut deux toumeurs de pages) auront aussi besoin d'un
papier pour entrer. Je pense, car votre service d'ordre m'a parue draconien-et je vous en
felicite!
Excusez-moi de vous deranger avec ces questions materielles! J'ai donne mon manuscrit
a Mile. Loriod il y a cinq jours (ma copie etait juste finie) et nous avons fait une 1re
repetition: elle joue deja magnifiquement!
Croyez, chere Madame, a ma profonde et respectueuse reconnaissance.
Olivier Messiaen

15 mai 1943
Chere Madame,
Je viens a vous dire un grand merci.
Vous m'avez procure un concert public, et surtout la possibilite d'ecrire une oeuvre
longue et serieuse et travaillee avec soin: soyez assuree de ma reconnaissance! Voulez-vous
dire a Monsieur Tual mon entier devouement, et croire vous meme a mes remerciements
renouveles et tres sinceres?
Olivier Messiaen

[Neussargues, Cantal]
22 septembre 1943
Chere Madame,
Votre lettre me parvient seulement a Neussargues (Cantal) oiu je termine des vacances
bien penibles, passes en grande partie a corriger des epreuves. Ma femme va bien-et Pas
est particulierement superbe: il a grandi, son cou et ses bras sont bronzes par le grand air
la lumiere, il s'interesse a mille choses diverses et court sans arret!
Merci d'avoir encore pense a moi pour vos concerts. Ma gratitude est grande env
M. Gallimard et vous-meme: que de reconnaissance!
Mon intention etait precisement d'ecrire une nouvelle suite a 2 pianos et de vou
proposer. C'est dangereux de recommencer ce que l'on a cru reussir une premiere fois, j
sais-mais, en dehors du '2 pianos' qui me va parfaitement, je ne m'interesse qu'au quatuo
et au grand orchestre, tous deux proscrits. (J'aurais pourtant aime, en dehors de la questi
1ere audition, entendre mon Quatuor pour la fin du Temps-violon, clarinette, violoncell
piano-aux concerts de la Pleiade-il a ete ecrit en captivite, et c'est une de mes meilleures
choses!)
Donc, j'accepte de composer une nouvelle oeuvre en 1ere audition pour les concerts de la
580
Pleiade, saison 1944. Mais je ne puis vous la montrer avant le 1er novembre, comme vous le
desirez car je me mettrai au travail en octobre seulement et aurai a peine finir pour le 1er
mai, ce qui fixerai l'audition de l'oeuvre a un de vos derniers concerts, au debut de juin, par
exemple. Cette oeuvre sera ecrite pour 2 pianos, dans le style, le genre et la duree de mes
Visions de l'Amen. Elle pourra etre jouee par Mile. Loriod (je ne me connais pas de meilleure
interprete!) et moi-meme, comme la saison derniere. Enfin, comme ce sera pour moi un
travail considerable, vous pourrez me remettre 10,000 francs en 2 versements, comme la
saison derniere egalement. (Excusez, s'il vous plait, la precision implacable de cette derniere
phrase!)
Je rentre a Paris le 2 octobre et reprends aussitot mes fonctions au Conservatoire et a la
Trinite. Voulez-vous m'envoyer dans quelque temps un petit mot pour me dire si nous
sommes bien d'accord? Ecrivez-moi a:
13 villa du Danube (13 et non pas 14!)
Paris 19e
Encore merci, chere Madame; voulez-vous presenter mes respects a votre mari et mes
amities a M. Mehu-et croire a ma tres profonde reconnaissance.
Olivier Messiaen

Productions Synops
18-20 place de la Madeleine, Paris 8e
4 october 1943
Chere Madame,
Je suis venu ce matin a Synops desirant vous parler un peu longuement des Concerts de
la Pleiade. Ne vous ayant pas trouvee, je vous ecris ce petit mot.
Voila! j'ai beaucoup reflechi au sujet de votre nouvelle commande et la combinaison de 2
pianos qui m'a si bien reussi l'an dernier, et dont je voulais tout d'abord user encore, me
seduit moins maintenant carj'ai peur de recommencer les Visions de l'Amen, en moins bien.
Alors voici un autre projet qui annule le precedent:
Je pourrais ecrire une oeuvre de caractere analogue aux Amen comme style et comme
sujet, mais ce serait d'abord plus pousse et cela comprendrait aussi un plus grand nombre
d'executants. A priori, j'aurais besoin de:
1) Un recitant (voix d'homme parle)
2) Une Onde Martenot (c'est un merveilleux instrument radio-electrique peu encom-
brant que vous connaissez surement!)
3) 3 fluftes
4) 3 trombones
5) Un piano (grand piano a queue, bien entendu)
6) Batterie comprenant: celesta, tam-tam, cymbales et tambour de basque
7) Dixtuor a cordes (c'est a dire double quintette a cordes comprenant deux lers violons,
deux 2es violons, deux altos, deux violoncelles, deux contrebasses)
II faudrait un chef d'orchestre (Desormieres [sic] serait parfait!), le recitant (J. L.
Barrault). Le piano et les Ondes auraient une partie importante et difficile (on pourrait
confier le piano a Mile Loriod et l'Onde a Mile Martenot soeur de l'inventeur).
L'oeuvre durerait entre en 1 14 d'heure et vingt minutes mais ne serait pas terminee avant
le 1er Mai car il me faudrait faire poeme, musique et instrumentation.
Le travail etant aussi considerable que precedemment, nous pourrions marcher avec les
memes conditions, soit 10,000 francs en deux versements. Voulez-vous m'envoyer un petit
mot de confirmation, si ce projet vous agree et croire, Chere Madame, a mes sentiments de
reconnaissance et de profond et respectueux devouement.
Olivier Messiaen
13 villa du Danube, Paris 19e (Botzaris 16-34).
581
Carte pneumatique addressed to:
Madame Denise Tual, 18-20 place de la Madeleine (Societe Synops), Paris 8e
2 novembre 1943
Chere Madame,
Merci beaucoup-un grand merci a vous et a Monsieur Gallimard pour le cheque de
5,000 francs que j'ai bien recu.
Je vais faire tous mes efforts pour avoir fini mon travail pour le 15 avril environ-ce qui
nous laissait a peu pres un mois pour la copie des parties et les repetitions, en supposant le
concert vers le 15 mai.
Croyez toujours a mes sentiments bien reconnaissants et tres amicalement et respectueu-
sement devoues.
Olivier Messiaen
8 To Denise Tual, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11) f. 16

tel: Botzaris 16-34
21 avril 1944
Chere Madame,
Vous trouverez ci-joint tous les documents pour le programme de notre concert de la
Pleiade (1ers jours de juin). D'abord le programme proprement dit (titres, sous-titres, noms
des interpretes) a imprimer en gros. Ensuite la notice que j'ai signee et qui peut rentrer-
imprimee en petits caracteres-dans le format d'une page de vos programmes de cette
saison (recto seulement)-ou sur 2 pages si vous le preferez, en caracteres plus gros. De
toute facon, ne coupez rien dans ce programme et cette notice, car je n'ai mis que
l'indispensable. Et si, par malheur, quelque chose ne vous convenait pas, telephonez-moi,
s'il vous plait!
Avec tous mes remerciements et mes sentiments de respectueuse et reconnaissainte
amitie.
Olivier Messiaen
9 ?To Jean-Francois Mehu, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 17

15 juillet 1944
Cher Monsieur et Ami,
J'ai bien requ le cheque de cinq mille francs signe de Madame Tual sur le compte de la
Librairie Gallimard.
Merci beaucoup.
Bien sur, je compte fermement que vous ferez executer mon oeuvre aux concerts de la
Pleiade des que les circonstances vous le permettront. Et je deposerai une photo de m
partition a vos bureaux de la Madeleine ces jours-ci, en passant dans votre quartier ...
Encore merci. Dites tous mes respects a Madame Tual quand son etat de sante ser
meilleur, et croyez a mes sentiments entierement devoues.
Olivier Messiaen

[Paris]
1er avril 1945
Cher Monsieur,
Ci-joint le texte complet de mon programme pour la Pleiade. N'y changez rien, n'en
retranchez rien.
Les passages soulignes en caracteres gras pour les titres, en italiques pour les citations du
poeme.
Mille Mercis.
582
J'ecris a M. Lambert pour tous les details concernant le materiel d'orchestre.
Avec tout mon devouement.
Olivier Messiaen

[Paris]
24 avril 1945
Chere Madame,
Je viens vous dire encore un grand merci pour le dernier concert de la Pleiade.
Jamais je n'ai eu si belle execution, presentee dans des conditions aussi favorables.
Desormiere a ete merveilleux, inoubliable, et chaque soliste, et tout l'orchestre, et les
choeurs, au dessus de tous eloges. Ce concert vous a couite de grands efforts a tous points de
vue, aussi ma reconnaissance est elle plus grande encore. C'est trop beau et je ne suis pas
digne de tout cela.
Merci de tout mon coeur.
Olivier Messiaen

[ma]rs 1946
Cher Monsieur,
[missing paper] parfaitement d'accord pour la date [missing paper] mai, Salle du Vieux
Conservatoire, [missing paper] 9h. du soir, pour notre concert de la Pleiade-j'ecris par le
meme courrier a Marcelle Bunlet que cette date est enfin arretee et qu'il n'y a pas d'autre
possible-elle sera certainement d'accord (puisque libre en mai).
D'accord aussi pour les conditions:
10,000 francs pour Bunlet.
Pour moi, rien, par reconnaissance pour La Pleiade!
Ci-joint, le texte du programme. Mon oeuvre Harawi durant 1 heure /4, suffit a remplir le
concert. Je me suis abstenu de tout commentaire.
II faudre metter les 2 pages en regard l'un de l'autre, a gauche la page 1 (titre nom
d'auteurs et interpretes, et indications diverses), a droite la page 2 (les sous-titres afferents
aux 12 parties de l'oeuvre).
Avec tous mes remerciements et ma reconnaissance encore!
Olivier Messiaen
P.S. Je serai definitivement a Paris a partir du 29 avril.
13 Yvonne Loriod to Nigel Simeone

a Monsieur Nigel Simeone
Paris, le 11 avril 1999
Cher Monsieur,
Visions de l'Amen
1. Entre le moment ou Olivier Messiaen a termine cette oeuvre, il a du la copier en

exemplaires. (I1 avait enormement de travail en 1943: son orgue, tous les mariages e
enterrements-sa classe, au moment des concours, l'annee de mon 1er prix d'harmonie.)
2. Ma marraine, professeur de piano habitait rue Blanche, a 200 metres de l'Eglise de la
Sainte-Trinite, ce qui permettait a O. Messiaen de venir repeter avec moi. (Impossible de
reduire cette oeuvre a 1 piano 4 mains, car chaque piano utilise tous les registres!)
3. J'ai heureusement garde tous les carnets-agendas de O. Messiaen, et je trouve au
dimanche 9 Mai 1943: '14h. repetition chez Mme Sivade (ma marraine), y viennent Mm
Tual, Gallimard, Poulenc, Jolivet, Samazeuilh, Honegger, Mme Messiaen.'
Donc, repetition generale, veille de la creation le lundi 10 mai a la Galerie Charpentier.
Apres cette repetition avec ces quelques invites, 0. Messiaen a descendu la rue Blanche
pour aller jouer l'orgue pour les Vepres a 5h. a la Trinite.
4. 2e execution de cette oeuvre: le mardi 22 juin, Salle Gaveau a Paris (toujours par
583
O. Messiaen-2' piano-et moi--ler piano) organisee par Guy-Bernard Delapierre, qui a lu
lui-meme les textes d'Olivier Messiaen. (A ce concert, il y avait aussi les Poemes pour Mi,
chant Marcelle Bunlet, piano l'auteur.)
Guy-Bernard Delapierre etait un Egyptologue que 0. Messiaen avait rencontre lorsqu'ils
ont ete faits prisonniers par les allemands en 1940. C'est chez lui qu'ont eu lieu les cours
d'analyse d'O.M., eleves: Boulez, Nigg, Loriod, Aubut,' etc.
Bon travail, et beau soleil!
Croyez cher Monsieur, a mes tres amicales pensees.
Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen
Fran(oise Aubut, a Canadian who was also in Messiaen's harmony class at the Conservatoire from 1941 to
See Boivin, La classe de Messiaen, pp. 410-11.
584

Messiaen's Works for the Concerts de la Pléiade: 'A Kind of Clandestine Revenge against the Occupation

Încărcat de

Informații document

Descriere originală:

Titlu original

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Messiaen's Works for the Concerts de la Pléiade: 'A Kind of Clandestine Revenge against the Occupation

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Messiaen and the Concerts de la Pléiade: 'A Kind of Clandestine Revenge against the

MESSIAEN AND THE CONCERTS DE LA PLEIADE:

ORIGINS OF THE CONCERTS DE LA PLEIADE

ON 6 MAY 1940, the Paris Opera gave the first performance in Fr

7 Tual, Itiniraire, ff. 2-3: original text in Appendix I, item 2.

An amateur photograph of the premiere of Visions de l'Amen at the Galerie Char

A second photograph taken on 10 May 1943, showing the audience (probably be

by invitation. Only those interested in French art were invited, therefor

The mention of 'draconian' front-of-house arrangements in this letter is the only

20 It has not been possible to establish the identity of Monsieur Dubois.

In a letter dated 11 April 1999, Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen kindly supplied me with a

'TROIS PETITES LITURGIES DE LA PRESENCE DIVINE'

Cher Monsieur [?Mehu],

THE PLANNED PREMIERE OF 'HARAWI', AND BEYOND

Cher Monsieur [?Mehu],

Documentation Relating to the Concerts de la Pleiade

2 Tual, Itineraire, ff. 2-3

3 Jean Francaix, letter to Denise Tual given in Tual, Itineraire, f. 4.

7 Denise Tual, Le temps devore, Paris, 1980, p. 195.

Programmes of the Concerts de la Pleiade, 1943-7

Abbreviations and symbols:

8 February 1943, Galerie Charpentier

22 March 1943, Galerie Charpentier

3 May 1943, Galerie Charpentier

10 May 1943, Galerie Charpentier

1 March 1944, Salle du Conservatoire

4 April 1944, Salle du Conservatoire

13 June 1944, Salle du Conservatoire

21 April 1945, Salle du Conservatoire

23 November 1945, Salle du Conservatoire

7 December 1945, Salle du Conservatoire

21 November 1946, Theatre des Champs-Elys6es

13 February 1947, Theatre des Champs-Elysees

22 May 1947, Theatre des Champs-Elysees

Original Texts of Letters from Olivier Messiaen to Denise Tual (Nos.

In the following transcriptions, the form of Messiaen's home addresses and

To Denise Tual, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 1

2 To Denise Tual, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 2

4 To Denise Tual, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 8

5 To Denise Tual, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 9

6 To Denise Tual, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 11

8 To Denise Tual, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11) f. 16

9 ?To Jean-Francois Mehu, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 17

10 ?To Jean-Francois Mehu, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 13

11 To Denise Tual, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 18

12 ?To Jean-Francois Mehu, Res. Vm. dos. 70 (11), f. 19

13 Yvonne Loriod to Nigel Simeone

1. Entre le moment ou Olivier Messiaen a termine cette oeuvre, il a du la copier en

S-ar putea să vă placă și