I have often given a talk before a concert to highlight certain ideas it might be helpful to think about before listening. There is a danger inherent in speaking about something as ungraspable as music. In crucial ways, the music and the program where it finds its local context have to speak for themselves. What is fascinating is just how free the associations can be for each of us. It requires us to be receptive not only to the works at hand, but to ourselves. For this, we often need quiet to really be in the moment. This is the same quiet the composers need to write a piece, the same one the performers need to convey its ineffable meaning.

David Robertson talks about Messiaen’s From the Canyons to the Stars…  photographer Deborah O’Grady’s extraordinary visual accompaniment, and building the 2016 project for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.