interview with cordelia williams

ARTSCOMING SOON

IENUFA by faniicek, Scottish Opera (from 7 April) . AMERICAN BUFFALO by David Mamet, starring Damian Lewis, W\,'ndham's Theatre, london (from f6 April)

MAD MEN Sky Aflantic (9 April . DAMEL BARENBOIM PROIECT, Rolal Festival Hall, London (ftom 20 April)

Sounding the depthsAn exploration of two master works by the twentieth

century's outstanding Catholic composer

the connection with Indian religiorl the wtjecof Williams'thesis. "In meditation, sound kusedto connectwith the divine, to re-contr€ctwiththe origins ofthe universei'she says-'InIndian thought, all Creation came from oreprimordial sound and sexbetween male andfemale created the original vibrations whichis where all sound comes frornl'Williams leafrthrouglr the score as we go on talking beoominganimated as the music on the page resoundsinherhead. She pointsto atwinHingfigurationof demisemiquavers in the "Amen of Desire",which Messiaen has described elsewhere as

"stalactites in an oracular grotbo'l She indicatesthe obsessive bells of the first piano in Amenofthe Corsurnmation'w*rilethe second poundsthe stately hymnlike Creation theme from theopening. She comes to the inflexible bars ofthe'i{men ofJudgemenf andreminisces aboutthe long conversations they inspired, not with-out humour. She points to a fortissimo clash,low on the keyboard. "Jeremy says that's methrowing the rubbish out!"

I wonder whether Messiaen's more outra-geous dissonances are tongue-in-cheek. "Idont know that he's necessarily gorng thatfarj'says Williams. "It's overdone, but it hasto be. In order to portray what he's porfraying,it has to be ridiculous. It's the same in the lastmovement of theVingt Regards, the 'Churchoflove'. Whenyou first see how slowitis, youthink it has to be ajoke, but then you realiseit's like that because it's the culmination ofthe whole two hours and 1o minutes."

'lhe Vingt Regards is the giant solo workin Messiaen 2oI5 which Williams *in pla-"in differentlocations from July, with asmdyday in London in April. "The thing I loveabout the Vingt Regards," Williams sap 1sthevariety, the range of meningandcmain-I marvel at being shown so mauypoints ofview, like that of the Virgin fedingherbabykick in the'Premidre Commrmin'mowmentHe writes that in the score- Itt a kind ofMagnificat to her unborn dildi

The original planwasfora radiobroadcastwith meditations by the poe* Maurice lt escawho worshipped Messim- But he was a col-laborator with the Germans and the ideawasdropped- hr Messim 2oI5, the poetic elementis provided by the writer Michael SymmonsRoberts, who sets theWrytRegards againstits historical bafturnd- "It was started whenParis was occupied and finished vihen it wasfree. Michael uses this idea It's tle cusp ofliberation, the excitement of waitingi

Many ofus come to Messiaen tlrough hischurch musig like tle Communion motet OSacrum Conrvitsium or the organ pieces. Iasked Williams whether she played these.She's not an orgarristbutknorrs the repertoire.One ofthe most inspfuing is the mighty "DieuParmi Nous" from Messiaen's tr aNatioitd duSeigneur."I might be having it as the proces-sional at my wedding in August," Williamsanswered. "That'll scare the grannies!"

RICK JONES

Between Heaven and the Clouds: Messiaen 2015VARIOUS VENUES THROUGHOUT 2015

f N l94t the French composer OlivierI Messiaen was released. trom a GermanIprisoner-ot'-war camp and returned tolive in Paris, which was by then occupied bythe Nazis. He immediately set himseHto writ-ing two enofinous religious works for pianoduo and so]o. One was the Visions de lAmen,the other, Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jdsus("Twenty Contemplations ofthe krfant Jesus').They are the focus of the "Messiaen 2015"project (www.messiaen2ol5.com), a series ofevents spread out over the year directed andconceived by the 26-year-old pianist CordeliaWilliams, who is also the main performer.

She came to Messiaen's music as a studentat Cambridge where she achieved a first intheology. Her tutor the pianist-theologianJeremy Begbie, who oversawWilliams' dis-sertation on "music and goddess worship inIndian religions", invited her to performVisions with him at concerts in Britain andAmericain 2o12. The repeatperformance on31 March, at King's College, Cambridge, forMessiaen 2oI5, has the added attraction of apre-concerltalk on modernism and musicbythe former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord(Rowan) Williams (no relation).

I asked Cordelia Williams why she hadopted to study for a theology rather than amusic degree. She had been a top scholar atChetham's music school in Manchester andhadwonthe piano section ofthe BBCYoung

24 TI{ETABLET 21 MARCH 2015

Musician of the Year at 16. "Theolog, is so

much about what people believe, how theythink about life and how they approach beinghuman," she told me, "and I think music'sreally about that as well ... That's why I wasattracted to Messiaen. It's like a crossover ofmusic and theologr."

Each ofthe seven movements oftheVi,sionsreflects on contexts in which the great "so beit'is utbered, like Creation, or Christ acceptingthe cup offate. In the second movement, theplanets conform to their orbits in a deep,rhythmicbass motif of almostfunky appeal.I asked Williams how she viewed the work."It's everything thewhole ofCreation inagree-ment, everything part of the same impulse,"she replied. 'At the end you have the re-cre-ation ofthe world through the Incarnation.But within the agreement, there's the harshAmen ofJudgement'and then the incrediblystunning'Amen du D6sir'- I mean this isreally luscious. It's so beautifirl you can hardlybelieve it's Messiaen!"

WILLIAMS IIrENT on to speak of Messiaen'shumilityandto elaborate, so to speal<, aspir-ituality of sound.'Messiaen says he's not tyingto enlighten or educate, but onlyto decoratelike astained-glass windowwhich has adaz-zling effect from afar and only shous the detailwhen you get closeri'This brings to mind themeditative qualrty of Messiaen's music and