Quatuor pour la fin du temps, Theme et Variations : Trio Wanderer, Moragues(cl)

OLIVIER MESSIAEN:
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Theme et Variations for piano and violin

Trio Wanderer
With Pascal Moragues, clarinet

‘And the angel... sware... that there should be time nolonger’
these words from the Book of Revelation inspired the conception of this famous quartet for piano, violin, cello and clarinet - the instruments played by the musicians who were Messiaen’s fellow captives in a prisoner-of-war camp in 1940.
Created in exceptionally testing conditions, it sums up the composer’s experiments and innovations, notably rhythmic.
Whether augmented, diminished, regular, irregular or nonretrogradable, these rhythms opened wide the gates to a new music, and earned the quartet its place among the supreme masterworks.
( harmonia mundi france )