Twenty Reflections on the Child Jesus

Program

Olivier Messiaen: Twenty Meditations on the Infant Jesus (original title: Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus)

1. Regard du Père (“Contemplation of the Father”)
2. Regard de l’étoile (“Contemplation of the Star”)
3. L’échange (“The Exchange”)
4. Regard de la Vierge (“Contemplation of the Virgin”)
5. Regard du Fils sur le Fils (“Contemplation of the Son upon the Son”)

6. Par Lui tout a été fait (“Through Him everything was made”)
7. Regard de la Croix (“Contemplation of the Cross”)
8. Regard des hauteurs (“Contemplation of the heights”)
9. Regard du temps (“Contemplation of time”)
10. Regard de l’Esprit de joie (“Contemplation of the Joyful Spirit”)

Intermission, 30 min

11. Première communion de la Vierge (“The Virgin’s First Communion”)
12. La parole toute-puissante ( “The All-Powerful Word”)
13. Noël (“Christmas”)
14. Regard des Anges (“Contemplation of the Angels”)
15. Le baiser de l’Enfant-Jésus (“The Kiss of the Infant Jesus”)

16. Regard des prophètes, des bergers et des Mages (“Contemplation of the prophets, the shepherds, and the Magi”)
17. Regard du silence (“Contemplation of silence”)
18. Regard de l’Onction terrible (“Contemplation of the Awesome Anointing”)
19. Je dors, mais mon cœur veille (“I Sleep, but My Heart Keeps Watch”)
20. Regard de l’Eglise d’amour (“Contemplation of the Church of Love”)

More about the concert

Olivier Messiaen composed his longest and most significant work to date, *Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus*, during the summer of 1944 in occupied Paris. The work is a series of reflections on various aspects of the story of Jesus’ birth, but can also be seen as an ideal introduction to Messiaen’s wondrous musical universe, with its mysterious harmonies, sparkling cascades of notes, and long passages inspired by birdsong. Vingt Regards was premiered by the then 20-year-old Yvonne Loriod, who would become Messiaen’s most important interpreter and later also his life partner, and one can clearly see how the work’s immensely virtuosic piano part was inspired by Loriod’s boundless pianistic skills.