In 2002, a friend asked if I would join him for a San Francisco Symphony concert with David Robinson as guest conductor. They were to play Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphonie. I was a bit ambivalent. I knew Messiaen’s work, but not Turangalîla, which I’d tried to listen to a couple of times and wasn’t able to get into it. I don’t do well when listening to something new unless the piece is flagrantly melodic. I need a few listens to begin appreciating difficult music. I remember falling in love as a teenager with Moonlight Sonata at a first listen, whereas it took multiple times to appreciate Hammerklavier . Messiean’s eighty-minute ten-part monstrosity is quite a bit more tough than a late Beethoven sonata, but it included an ondes Martenot, an instrument that produced a most delightfully ethereal music. I hadn’t heard one live before, so I went. Since this was an offseason concert, the hall wasn’t sold out, probably eighty percent full, and it was not the usual symphony crowd.…