Programme Guide

L’Ascension is among Olivier Messiaen’s early orchestral works. Written in 1932/33, it still manifests an Impressionist influence. Nonetheless, the work, which Messiaen later also arranged for organ, is already typical for the French composer with its religious topic and preference for a sensuous musical language.

If Messiaen draws his musical inspiration from the spiritual connection with the divine, for Peter Tchaikovsky the impetus behind his creative work was feelings of having no home and of uncertainty. No composition shows this more clearly than his Fourth Symphony, whose belligerent opening fanfare stands for the implacability of destiny. Man’s futile striving for happiness is the great theme which the Russian composer used as programmatic basis for his work.