Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

Olivier Messiaen (Composer), Myung-Whun Chung (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Myung-Whun Chung
• Composer: Olivier Messiaen
• Audio CD (January 9, 2001)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B00004TL2R
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,946 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 9-JAN-2001

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best I know., December 13, 2005

By 

Paco Yáñez (Santiago de Compostela) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (Audio CD)

Quatuor pour la fin du Temps is one of my favourite Messiaen's works, together with his Turangalila Symphonie, the Vingt Regards and his opera Saint Françoise. In all that pieces you can feel together with a great development of musical technique a great faith in the work, something that is specially present in this Quatuor, composed in the concentration camp in which Olivier Messiaen was captured.

With a curious and not very common instrumentation, Quatuor pour la fin du Temps, is the result of what Messiaen found in that camp and what he really needed in that moment, a mixture of anxiety for freedom and an incredible faith in the powerful of a presence that we can easily identify with God, the Christian God, as Messiaen was a pity and devout Christian, like we listen in many of his pieces. I'm not really in that way, but I understand something about that feelings and about what is musical techniques, and it really helps to love this wonderful, rare and particular quartet.

I've listened versions played by Barenboim, Tetard... (DG), Kontarsky, Palm... (EMI), De Leeuw, Bylsma... (Philips) and between all of them this is really the one I love much more. I have to mention Palm, Kontarsky, Gawriloff and Deinzer in a wonderful recording that was together with the Turangalila conducted by Simon Rattle, but now deleted. I hope EMI will release again this performance, because it's very, very good too. But the best I know nowadays is this one full of virtuosity and compromise with Messiaen language, very well known by Chung, who have conducted lot of very good CDs of the French composer, apart from being during many years a close assistant to Messiaen in his last period. The other players are really outstanding, specially a terrific Gil Shaham, who is, in my opinion, one of the best young violin players from our time.

The recording is, too, the best I know for this piece, amazing!. Everything is clear and well balanced. The sound is very present and you can even listen the touch of the fingers with the different parts of the instruments. An amazing experience to listen the soloists in this recording.

In sum, one of the best Messiaen's work in the top performance. A must have for all those interested on XXth Century Classic Music.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive Performance, February 25, 2007

By 

Bruce Varner (Chicago area, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (Audio CD)

This Messiaen masterpiece was composed and first performed in a Nazi prison camp. The program for this piece is the revelation of St. John the Divine. It is scored for violin, clarinet, cello, and piano. You would expect a piece composed in a prison camp and based on biblical text to be powerful, and this one certainly is.

This extraordinary piece of music lives or dies on the strength of the musicians; both as ensemble musicians and as soloists. Virtuosity is a must. Ensemble work is critical in the first and second movements. The second movement (Vocalise for the Angel who announces the end of Time) has an extended passage for violin and cello, accompanied by simple chords on the piano. The violin and cello are in unison octaves for much of this movement. Shaham and Wang played this movement very well in tune. Messiaen calls this middle section of the movement "impalpable harmonies of heaven" where the violin and cello are engaged in "quasi-plainsong chanting".

The third movement (Abyss of the birds) introduces the soloistic aspects of this piece. This is an extended clarinet solo, expertly played by Paul Meyer. Technical difficulty abounds..the clarinet has to play in all the registers, at all the dynamics, and with varying coloration. Long sostenutos, difficult runs, it's everything a clarinettist might have nightmares about. In Meyer's hands, it sounded like a walk in the park.

The opening of the fourth movement (Interlude) contains some minor intonation issues between the violinist and cellist, mainly when they are on open strings. Octaves are dangerous, as any musician will tell you. The ensemble intonation is perfect in the sixth movement (Dance of frenzy, for the seven trumpets).

The fifth movement is a gorgeous extended cello solo (Eulogy to the Eternity of Jesus), played with tremendous sensitivity by Jian Wang. It is achingly beautiful, and requires tremendous musicianship. While it contains no firework runs, the lines are very long, and the writing takes the cellist well up in thumb position. Wang made every single note sing. The complementary movement to this is the extended violin solo eighth and final movement (Eulogy to the immortality of Jesus), played by the incomparable Gil Shaham. It is just amazing, and Shaham is brilliant as usual. Let's just let Messiaen (through translator Anthony Pople) explain it: "It is all love. Its slow ascent towards the extreme high register is the ascent of man towards his God, of the Child of God towards his Father, of the deified Being toward Paradise." No one could have said it better.

Highly recommended.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Zenith of Virtuosity, September 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (Audio CD)

An incredible recording of a monumental work. This ensemble is made of four high caliber soloists. With the ominous timbre of Paul Meyer, the technical virtousity of Myung-Whun Chung, and the sorrowfull, tear jerking musicality of Gil Shaham and Jian Wang, this recording stands out as an icon of what true virtousity is. The blend of these four is precise, full, and pure, but most importantly, the music being made is unreserved and inspiring.

This is powerful music played by four powerhouse musicians. This recording is one of the best recordings I have in my library. There is no doubt in my mind that these musicians' interpretation of the Messiaen will be remembered as legendary.