And I want to make every effort to write a work that will be beautiful and of significant proportions. I accept with pleasure your commission … I am very touched by your gesture. (It took a month for it to reach France you addressed it to the Conservatoire and I was away, so it chased me for another fifteen days and then I needed to find a translator, as I don’t speak any English.) I apologize for replying so late to your letter of 25 June. Messiaen didn’t answer for two months, due to a combination of postal delays and language problems, as he explained in his reply on 20 August: Mon cher Maître, You will be interested to know that among the composers who have already written for the Foundation are Béla Bartók, Bohuslav Martinu, Darius Milhaud and Igor Stravinsky … The commission is for one thousand dollars, to be paid upon completion of the manuscript … It gives me great pleasure to inform you that the Board of Directors of the Koussevitzky Music Foundation have voted to ask you to accept a commission for a composition for symphony orchestra. On 25 June 1945 he wrote asking for a new work: Dear Mr Messiaen, Messiaen’s first major international commission came from Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
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