The Ascension

The central painting for this period is no doubt the “The Ascension”. Any words to describe this event would be insufficient: it is perhaps best if the music of Messiaen used for the creation of this painting is allowed to speak instead.

The rest of the paintings are related to other mysteries, such as the mystery surrounding the finding of Moses (after the music of Rupert Ignaz Mayr), the mystery of prayer (“Allegory of Prayer - Joan of Arc”, after some of Tchaikovsky's sacred music); the triptych consisting of (1) “Celebration of Tears” after several of Beethoven's piano sonatas, (2) “The Call of Life” after several of Haydn's piano sonatas, and (3) “The Rose of Fire”, after several of Mozart's piano sonatas); the awakening and growth of the human soul (“The Light of Heavenly Worlds” after Paul Hindemith's clarinet quintet and clarinet sonata, “I Dream of You” after two motets by Baldassare Galuppi, “Queen of Flowers” after Bohuslav Martinu's four late cantatas based on the wonderful poetry of Miloslav Bures); and others. To quote from the words of the poet Arion Valentin:

Is it not a blessing to live a life of reason,
filled with the light of heavenly worlds,
where the beauty of the soul grows
like a meadow of radiant flowers.
Is it not a blessing
to make the pure light one's own
and colour it with inner tones.

10 March 2019

The central painting for this period is no doubt the “The Ascension”. Any words to describe this event would be insufficient: it is perhaps best if the music of Messiaen used for the creation of this painting is allowed to speak instead.

The rest of the paintings are related to other mysteries, such as the mystery surrounding the finding of Moses (after the music of Rupert Ignaz Mayr), the mystery of prayer (“Allegory of Prayer - Joan of Arc”, after some of Tchaikovsky's sacred music); the triptych consisting of (1) “Celebration of Tears” after several of Beethoven's piano sonatas, (2) “The Call of Life” after several of Haydn's piano sonatas, and (3) “The Rose of Fire”, after several of Mozart's piano sonatas); the awakening and growth of the human soul (“The Light of Heavenly Worlds” after Paul Hindemith's clarinet quintet and clarinet sonata, “I Dream of You” after two motets by ... read more