Composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-92) humbly reigned over modern classical music from the 1930s on, but as concert pianist Jacqueline Chew learned, he never neglected to express his reverence for the God of the Bible.
In 1944, Messiaen bequeathed Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus to a torn, conflicted postwar world. This mammoth collage of musical extremes can sound as incomprehensible and lively as a child pounding a keyboard with unfettered glee, or as ageless and endless as a sober Zen Buddhist chant. It is still acclaimed as one of the peak piano compositions of this century.
When Chew first heard Contemplations, she felt an almost supernatural “calling” toward the music–an odd sensation for an atheist. Exploring Messiaen’s influences, Chew studied Thomas Aquinas, Giotto’s fourteenth-century frescoes, thirteenth-century Hindu rhythms, and the biographies of such Christian saints as Saint Terese of Lisieux. She began this labor of love as a skeptic, but eventually Messiaen’s devotion won her over. “Little by little, I started believing,” Chew remembers. “First I had responded purely to the music; eventually, the religious context became essential.”
OF TRIAL AND TRUST
Memorizing from a score over a thousand pages long, Chew labored 11 years to master five of the twenty movements, including “The Kiss of the Infant Jesus” and “By Him All Things Are Made.” In 1988 she pursued trilingual piano tutorials with Messiaen’s wife, Yvonne Loriod, in Paris. Loriod was an invaluable guide to mysterious fingerings that allowed the pianist to coax out Messiaen’s nuanced tonalities. Chew explains a cupped, rolling use of the small finger in a fashion that would be distinctly heretical to classical pianists.
Messiaen’s notations for chords were highly imaginative–as when he called for “orange with pigmentations of red and green, touches of gold, also milky white . . . iridescent reflections like opal.” Chew still conjures up images of “reflections, light effects, battles on horseback, gardens, a baby” to achieve the proper tones during a two-and-a-quarter-hour performance. “It’s absolutely impossible to learn by the notes,” she asserts. “They’re just a distraction.”
Chew’s pursuit of Twenty Contemplations became a metaphor about trial and trusting God. Grueling eight-hour practices for her first full-length performance literally wore out her forearms. “I was constantly in pain. I had to practice less, and that’s very scary. After 20 minutes I had stop, focus, and simply have faith that I knew the piece.” Specialists warned that her muscles might be irreparably damaged.
“At that point I wasn’t sure if I should cancel the concert. I didn’t even know if I could get through the whole piece, so there was no dress rehearsal. I wasn’t sure if I would permanently injure myself.” But she decided to go ahead; then, after a successful 1988 performance, she stopped playing the piano for a year to rest. Today Chew teaches and performs regularly with the Woman’s Philharmonic Orchestra of Berkeley (Calif).
Contemplations is so demanding that Chew must put her life on hold to prepare for a live performance. She is one of only three pianists in the Bay Area, including Messiaen’s wife, who have performed Twenty Contemplations in its entirety. Her satisfaction is more than professional. “Hearing it live is a very different experience; when I’m sharing it with someone new, I can’t say, ‘just go listen to the CD.’ ” She feels the listener has to be prepared–an act akin to prayer before Communion. “Sometimes I play a few parts in a church service, or give a talk. People go into shock. I expect that. I’m not one who goes around verbalizing my faith, but this music simply is my testimony.”
Chew, who met Messiaen in 1988, hesitates to call him a genius only because she was so impressed by his obvious humility. “I think he saw himself as an instrument trying to express God’s glory,” she says. “His gifts convey something about God, something he understands directly from God and communicates to us. To me this is more than ‘just’ music. This is a message from God. It is, literally, like being with God.”
One of several recordings of “Twenty Contemplations” (Vingt Regards) is a performance by Yvonne Loriod on the Erato label (WEA Records, $19.98); there are versions by Michel Beroff on EMI and by Roger Muraro on MCA Classics.
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