ArtsSF

BERKELEY—There’s been no composer quite like the French mystic Olivier Messiaen. He wrote long pieces on bird calls, on visions of Heaven, on memorable environments. He was a true believer in many areas, even in the whole-tone scale exploited by his countryman Debussy. Like Scriabin, Messiaen had synesthesia—the rare quality of seeing colors on hearing music, and vice versa. After hearing his immense, 92-minute tone poem “From the Canyon to the Stars,” I concluded that having the synesthesia gene would…

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BERKELEY—Mahler’s massive Symphony No. 5, heard here with the inspiring St. Louis Symphony the other day, is an extraordinary work, written during the creative euphoria of the Austrian composer’s recent marriage and honeymoon. Its long 68-minute musical path reminds me of a journey starting in a depressing, grimy industrial district (say, in Linz), and heading toward the dreamland of sunny Lake Worth, meandering through picturesque old towns (Hallstatt), bath resorts (Bad Ischl), and thriving vineyards, in anything but a crow-flies…

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