The orchestral cycle L'Ascension (1933) was an incredibly symbolic work, as it was here that the idea first emerged that would form the basis for all of the maestro´s subsequent music: the idea of ascent as a symbol of the spiritual purification of the faithful. A four-section composition, the significance of the separate movements bring to mind certain analogies with the traditional symphonic cycle, but here the listener will find no typical techniques of symphonic development. The majestic restraint of Ascension is conditioned by the idea it carries: not outer drama, but rather an inner state, where events in a person´s spiritual life determine the character of the work.
The religious tendency is underlined by the composer´s own subheading – Meditations. Meditation (in the sense of thought or comment) is the leading idea in the French composer´s works, it could be said his working method, visible in various hypostases in Messiaen´s music.
The liturgical feel of Ascension also emerges thanks to the use of modified church refrains, the flexible rhythm rooted in Gregorian chant, the majestic choral episodes. The idea of ascent is also embodied in terms of pitch: each movement of the canvas sounds higher than the last, and the work ends with an uneven harmony, in a sense giving the music eternity – the eternity of life in Heaven. This tendency to strive upwards renders the composition akin to the structure of Gothic cathedrals that Messiaen so admired. Thus the French composer´s dream is brought to life, his desire to "conduct a special kind of divine service in the concert hall" and expand spiritual space beyond the confines of church walls.
Pierre Boulez´ Four Notations were commissioned in 1987 by a Parisian orchestra. The work is an orchestral suite based on the youthful Twelve Notations of his youth (1945). The composer selected the first four sections of his work and arranged them in the order 1-4-3-2. The new version of the work was incredibly successful. As Dmitry Smirnov wrote, "Boulez has fundamentally reworked the music, giving the smallest nuances the chance to grow and "blossom", appearing in all their shades and colours, as if in a magic mirror, the huge scale of a grand symphony orchestra of one hundred and fourteen musicians. In genre the Notations are a cycle of preludes or bagatelles, impromptus or moments musicaux, intermezzos or capriccios, novelettes or arabesques, fleetingness or a microcosmos. The word "notation", preferred by Boulez and of a specifically abstract nature, almost focusses our attention on the notes themselves, trying to draw us away from any poetic associations. But the music itself is at crossed swords with this, imbued as it is with a vast spectrum of associations… They are all contrasting in character, rich in vivid musical images and unexpected turns. Their aesthetics are a kind of Austrian expressionism seen through the prism of French impressionism."
Rodion Shchedrin´s opera Lolita after the novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov was first performed in Stockholm on 14 Secember 1994 under Mstislav Rostropovich. The libretto was written by Rodion Shchedrin himself in Russian, translated into Swedish for the premiere and subsequently it appeared in English. In Russia the premiere of Lolita took place at the Perm Theatre of Opera and Ballet on 12 May 2003.
Rodion Shchedrin defines the genre of the work as a "grand opera in three acts". The opera´s main focus centres on the actions of four characters – Lolita, Humbert Humbert, Charlotte and Quilty, a cynical dissolute that Humbert kills. A scandalous story lies behind Nabokov´s novel. After it was published the author was accused of immorality, and in France the the novel was declared pornographic. But it was Lolita that brought Nabokov international acclaim. According to Shchedrin, the "plot of Lolita is a wonderful thriller that is crying out to be made into an opera." But for the composer, uppermost was not the scandal of the novel but rather its moral content – the collision in the protagonist´s soul. It is not by chance that the action unfolds through the prism of Humbert Humbert´s own recollections, sitting in his prison cell and awaiting the death penalty. On a radio show Rodion Shchedrin once said that for him Lolita was "a novel about a beauty that dies very quickly, about nostalgia for beauty. For me it is more of a symbol. For me Lolita is less of a living creature and more of a generalised image of fleeting, alas all too transient beauty."
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