Description
Messiaen’s Quartet is not written in the classical four-movement form but as an eight-movement suite. Each section is a musical expression of programmatic meditation on the Creation and the Gospel according to St. John. The melodic writing is such that the listener is given a feeling of timelessness and endless space. Here, specific rhythms, which in contrast to ‘classical’ music have no set musical pulse, enhance the feeling that time is expanded and takes on a spiritual dimension. Messiaen thus creates a thoroughly new concept, which is in direct opposition to traditional compositional ideas of precise and regular metrics and structures, development and the genesis of forward-moving music.
There is certainly no more convincing performance of this exceptional composition, which was recorded in the presence of the composer and authorised by him.
2. Vocalise, pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du temps
3. Abime des oiseaux
4. Intermede
5. Louange a l’Eternite de Jesus
7. Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel, pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du temps
8. Laouange a l’lmmortalie de Jesus