Olivier Messiaen
Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps

Do not be afraid. The End of Times as conceived by Messiaen is not frightening at all. On the contrary.

A piano, a cello, a violin, and a clarinet accompany us on this colorful journey towards the intimate and the infinite, at times lulling us, often shaking us. A journey inspired by the image outlined in the Apocalypse of John, that of the ethereal might of the angel announcing the end of times.
In the 8 movements, a “vortex of complementary colors” comes to life (says the author himself) which represents one of the peaks of modern classical music, and contains sparks that will later blaze in contemporary music.

The French composer (it's 1940) writes the End of Times literally making “the times end” (understood as metric measures) of traditional music. With this quartet, Messiaen indeed exalts unusual rhythmic techniques, such as – among many – the “added value” (the schizophrenic insertion of notes or rests in the middle of bars to create asymmetrical figures) or the “non-retrogradable rhythms” (characterized, on the contrary, by a symmetry as complex as it is perfect).

But beyond – or rather, through – these inscrutable processes, what surprises is that the harmonies that emerge from his calculated interweavings are of dazzling sinuosity. The melodic designs give body to exciting images, rich in suggestion, worthy of that "theological rainbow" that Messiaen indicates as the key to reading the deep religious inspiration of the work.

Absurdly beautiful are the two movements of Praise (Louange): the fifth, à l’Eternité de Jésus, where the cello sings “infinitely slow” on the piano chords; and the eighth, a l’Immortalité de Jésus, an “extremely slow and tender” duo of piano and violin, which with poignant notes ascends – together with the author, together with Man – towards the perfect love of the Incarnate Word.

Let yourself be accompanied, it is worth it.