Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time @ richardeward.com

Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time
from RCA

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

• Beyond Time
  Not long ago, I listened to Olivier Messiaen's *Quartet for the End of Time* for the first time. I did not know what to make of it when it started, but by the time it ended it had made a deep impression. Since then I have listened to it several times more. Without the description provided by Messiaen, I wonder how many listeners would have guessed what the quartet was all about, or called it one of the greatest works of the twentieth century. I can't prove it, but possibly critics would have called it an... more info

• Fin
  I gave my copy of this (favorite) album to my favorite music professor -- now I have to replace it! Other reviewers have stressed the history behind the composition and its premiere in a Nazi POW camp, so I won't go into that, interesting and pertinent as it may be. Other reviewers have focussed on the fact that Messiaen was a devout Catholic mystic, implying that the listener must share the composer's religious convictions in order to fully appreciate his artistic expression. However, because this is a... more info

• A great work, a Catholic work
  This recording of the "Quartet for the End of Time," one of the greatest musical works of the 20th century, is precious to me. Performers Peter Serkin (piano), Ida Kavafian (violin), Fred Sherry (cello), and Richard Stoltzman (clarinet) offer a stunning, heartfelt performance. Olivier Messiaen, a Frenchman born in 1908 who demonstrated an early gift for music as a pianist, composed the piece in a Nazi prison camp for the few instruments he had available, including an out-of-tune piano on which he performed,... more info

• Imagining the end...
  I wonder how many other masterpieces were in fact lost in prisoner or war camps. We shouldn't be listening to this work today. It should not have survived. Perhaps Messiaen should not have either. But he did, and it did, and we are lucky because of it.
  The quartet, composed for violin, clarinet, cello and piano because those were the instruments Messiaen's fellow inmates played, is in, oddly, eight movements instead of the Biblical seven. It is prefaced by a quotation from the Apocalypse of St. John... more info

Tracks:

1. No. 1, Liturgie de cristal
2. No. 2, Vocalise pour l'ange qui annonce la fin du temps
3. No. 3, Abime des oiseaux
4. No. 4, Intermede
5. No. 5, Louange a l'eternite de Jesus
6. No. 6, Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes
7. No. 7, Fouillis d'arcs-en-ciel, pour l'ange qui announce la fin du temps
8. No. 8, Lourange a l'immortalite de Jesus

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