Lapocalypse Selon St. Jean

Convinced that the Revelation of Saint John was the response to questions that man has posed since the beginning of time, and that music has the power of evoking something and making it comprehensible even without using images, he turned to the overpowering subject of the Apocalypse, a subject that is difficult to grasp in human, artistic terms: visions of the end of time, of the goal and fulfilment of divine creation. Completed by the end of 1939, the premiere took place in occupied Paris on 11 June 1942 under the direction of Charles Munch. The passage in the text about the 144,000 children of Israel who were redeemed went unnoticed by the Nazi censors. The unusual orchestration of this fantastic oratorio includes a quartet of vocal soloists, a mixed chorus, organ, and two orchestras: the orchestra of heaven, which corresponds more or less to a large symphony orchestra, and the orchestra of hell, an ensemble of grotesque sound effects.