Above: an incredible photo from the first-ever performance of Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, given at a World War II prison camp in Germany in 1941; the musicians were Jean de Boulaire, the composer (standing), Henri Akoka, and Etienne Pasquier. The audience was comprised of their fellow prisoners and the prison's guards. Photo from the archives of Chamber Music New Zealand.
Friday February 4th, 2022 - This evening's concert at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has been a red-letter date on my calendar since it was announced: an opportunity to hear Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps ("Quartet for the End of Time"). This quartet is sometimes played as the only work on a program, but tonight the Society brought forth two shorter works for the evening's first half. It is not an easy task to select works to share a program with the monumental Messiaen work, and while the optimism of the Brahms and Stravinsky pieces made for a great contrast between the concert's first and second halves, in the end I think the Quartet stands best on its own.
The remarkable clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein (above) opened the program with Johannes Brahms' Sonata in F-minor, Opus 120, No, 1 with Wu Qin at the Steinway. This sonata opens with a somber theme. Throughout the work, Brahms treats the clarinet and piano as equals, making for an interesting feeling of a conversation between the two players...a conversation full of subtleties. The second movement, marked Andante un poco adagio, abounds in melody and shows off the players' wide dynamic range.
The Allegretto grazioso has a charming waltz-like quality, interrupted by a more restless center section; and then the final Vivace begins with a burst of youthful energy. Throughout the sonata, Mr. Fiterstein's warm, ample tone filled out the melodies with distinction, always.perfectly dovetailed with Wu Qian's lovely playing.
Above: Alexander Sitkovetsky and Wu Qian
Igor Stravinsky's Suite italienne for Violin and Piano (1932) was given a brilliant rendering by Alexander Sitkovetsky and Wu Qian tonight.
The Suite italienne finds Stravinsky working with tunes that ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev had selected from the works of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and other 18th-century Neapolitan composers. Stravinsky spiced the music up with touches of dissonance, altered rhythms, and witty accents.
The lively charm of the music was perfectly captured in tonight's performance. The music sounds wonderfully familiar, especially the first two movements. Then, the Tarantella, with its scampering virtuosity, has a special appeal, followed by the lyrical Gavotta, the brisk and dramatic Scherzino, and the gracious Minuetto, which evolves to a fast finale, with amusing lulls for slight detours along the way.
Mr. Sitkovesky and Wu Qian played with verve and good humor, their energy and their keen attention to musical detail giving much pleasure.
Above: cellist Mihai Marica
Following the interval, the Quartet for the End of Time was performed by Mssrs. Fiterstein and Sitkovetsky, joined by cellist Mihai Marica, with Wu Qian at the piano. Olivier Messiaen composed this work in 1940-41 while he was being held in a prison camp; he had been working in the field as a wartime nurse when he was captured.
I first heard the fascinating Quatuor pour la fin du temps years ago, performed in the courtyard of the Hartford Seminary: an unforgettable experience. Since then, I have only heard it played live once, here at Alice Tully Hall.
Above: the poster announcing the first performance of Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps given on January 15th, 1941. It was played on broken instruments in the frigid barracks of a prison camp at Görlitz, Germany. The composer had found other musicians among the camp's inmates who rehearsed and performed the quartet with him amid the wintry squalor.
Messiaen's work was inspired by the Bible, and by his love of Nature. He left a detailed scenario for the work, which was printed in this evening's Playbill. The music demands unparalleled focus and intensity from the players, and is both spiritually uplifting and emotionally exhausting for the listener.
Tonight's quartet of musicians played superbly. Wu Qian's deep commitment and sheer stamina set the tone for what must be one of the most arduous yet rewarding experiences a musician can undertake. The long clarinet solo, with its exposed notes sustained to uncanny effect, as cries of the soul, was given a masterful performance by Mr. Fiterstein. Mr. Marica's cello sounded so poetic in its prayerful expression - sometimes drawing the tone down to a silken thread - and astonishing in its sense of line and of colour. Mr. Sitkovetsky's fascinating mix of delicacy and passion was simply mesmerizing.
There's no way words can do justice to this music, nor to the spiritual reassurance it imparts. Listening to this unique work, one is drawn into deep thoughtfulness, both of the poignant and elusive beauty of life and of the terror and ultimate release of death. Where are we? Where are we headed? What comes after? The Quartet for the End of Time evokes these cosmic thoughts like no other music.
The audience, spellbound throughout, rose up united at the end in genuine display of gratitude to the phenomenal players...and to the composer for his message of peace.
~ Oberon