Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time
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Music CD Cover

Performer: Fred Sherry
Performer: Richard Stoltzman
Composer: Olivier Messiaen
Orchestra: Tashi
Performer: Peter Serkin
Performer: Ida Kavafian
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1989-08-11
Music Label: RCA
Soundtracks:
  1. Quartet For The End Of Time: Liturgy of Crystal
  2. Quartet For The End Of Time: Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of Time
  3. Quartet For The End Of Time: Abyss of the birds
  4. Quartet For The End Of Time: Interlude
  5. Quartet For The End Of Time: Praise to the Eternity of Jesus
  6. Quartet For The End Of Time: Danse of Fury, for the seven trumpets
  7. Quartet For The End Of Time: Cluster of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of Time
  8. Quartet For The End Of Time: Praise to the Immortality of Jesus

Free Music Notes for Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

Free Music Review: Fin
Hit: 5 Stars

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 work of art, listeners will hear in it beauties unique to their own sensibilities. The listener can be a complete atheist and respond emotionally to Messiaen's passionate, idiosyncratic, and heart-wrenching composition. This is a piece that brings tears to my eyes and makes me intellectually curious too; I want to get the score so I can see how Messiaen works his magic. It's emotional, odd, intense, riveting, and harmonically sophisticated, right up there with the best of the 20th Century composers' works.

Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time Poster

This all-star chamber ensemble was specifically formed to play Messiaen's masterpiece. Two decades after this recording was made, it still shows the effects of their intense identification with the music. Some listeners find Messiaen's music longwinded and difficult, and my own opinion varies depending on the work and my mood. But this piece, written in a German concentration camp during the early years of World War II, is truly one of the greatest works of music of the 20th century. Although it lasts nearly an hour, its variety of color and its powerful expressiveness will engross any responsive listener, especially in this performance. --Leslie Gerber

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