No one is more familiar with the sonic universe of Olivier Messiaen than Kent Nagano. After all, he studied privately in Paris with the maître himself, who became something akin to a musical father figure for the young American. Now his Messiaen cycle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra will continue with a little-known early song cycle, Poèmes pour Mi. “Mi” was the nickname of Messiaen’s first wife, Claire Delbos, to whom he dedicated these nine songs on poems from his own pen. His hymnic composition is not only a declaration of love to his wife but an attempt to unite divine and earthly love, interspersed with echoes of searing doubt and the terrors of Hell. The vocal part will be sung by the young French soprano Jenny Daviet, making her exciting début with the Bavarian RSO, which can display its choice panoply of colours in the glistening orchestral version of 1937. Another master of orchestration was the romantic composer Hector Berlioz, whose 150th birthday will be celebrated worldwide in 2019. His early stroke of genius, the visionary Symphonie fantastique, forms a perfect complement to Messiaen, for the subject of this musical Künstlerroman is a maniacal passion for an unattainable beloved, including an intoxicated delirium and a witches’ sabbath.
