BaL 18.03.17 - Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

[Pulcinella]

Thanks, both!
Duly ordered.
I think that the later incarnation has reverted to the original LP cover design, but I prefer the earlier one, and have saved 58p in the process.


My partner and I both have copies of the miniature score, dated a few weeks apart: mine 21 November 1979, in his handwriting (so a present, but nowhere near my birthday?), and his, again his handwriting but using a different pen, 7 December 1979. That was soon after we met. I wonder if we heard the piece together at a concert? Sadly, I threw my diaries out as part of the great move up north, so I can't check.

[Beef Oven!]

I don't even like Messiaen and this just makes it worse! Why do they keep doing this? Does anybody like it?

I’m fine with the double-barrelled approach. I’m also keen on the Messiaen quartet.

[pastoralguy]

I have a (probably illegal!), mini-disc taken from a performance at a late night concert given in the Usher Hall during the EIF with Lisa Batiashvili, violin and Steven Osborne, piano. In 1997. I can't remember who the 'cellist and clarinet players were although I'll look for the disc. It was a BBC broadcast so, maybe one day far in the future, it'll be available online.

[Petrushka]

I have a (probably illegal!), mini-disc taken from a performance at a late night concert given in the Usher Hall during the EIF with Lisa Batiashvili, violin and Steven Osborne, piano. In 1997. I can't remember who the 'cellist and clarinet players were although I'll look for the disc. It was a BBC broadcast so, maybe one day far in the future, it'll be available online.

Could be this one, PG:http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/4c1d2ea7c...84e6ab62595667

Ronald van Spaendonck (clarinet) and Alban Gerhardt (cello)

[pastoralguy]

Could be this one, PG:http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/4c1d2ea7c...84e6ab62595667

Ronald van Spaendonck (clarinet) and Alban Gerhardt (cello)

Yes, those were the other players. Alas, I can't find the mini-disc. I suspect this is a different performance unless the BBC recycled the original broadcast. The Usher Hall concert only featured the Messian.

[pastoralguy]

Seems I also have a DECCA cd of Olli Mustonen, Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis and Michael Collins bought in a library sale for 25p!

[Bryn]

Back in 2002 Radio 4 broadcasted a drama-documentary to close its "Making Space" trilogy:

Afternoon Play: Making Space:

3: The End of Time. By Nicholas Mclnerny. In a prison camp in Dresden in the early part of the Second World War, using damaged instruments and working in a bathroom, Olivier Messiaen somehow managed to compose and perform one of the most extraordinary pieces of 20th-century music. The Quartet for the End of Time is based on the words of the Book of Revelation. Professor Anthony Pople tells the story, while dramatist Nicholas Mcinerny imagines events from the point-of-view of the guard who allowed Messiaen the space to work.

The cast included Andrew Sachs, as Sargeant Schmidt, the prison guard who made it possible for Messiaen to compose in peace, locked in a bathroom.

I have it in 128kbps mp3 format from DAB (Converted from mp2). PM me if you would like to hear it.

[pastoralguy]

Just bumping up...

[Beef Oven!]

Just bumping up...

Had forgotten!

[BBMmk2]

Have I missed something but I do not see the coupling of QFTEOT that was featured on Rattle's old recordingon Warner Classics with his old Birmingham orchestra?

[Pulcinella]

Have I missed something but I do not see the coupling of QFTEOT that was featured on Rattle's old recordingon Warner Classics with his old Birmingham orchestra?

I assume that you mean couplings to Turangalila.


Amazon has two options still available (or did you just mean that Alpie had not listed the earlier one?):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/mgj/Messiaen-Turangalila-Symphony-Olivier/B00000DNHT/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1489829980&sr=1-4&keywords=Rattle+messiaen

and

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Messiaen-Turangalila-Symphony-Quatour-temps/dp/B0007RA7BS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1489829980&sr=1-1&keywords=Rattle+messiaen

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Blimey! I wonder if Robert Stoltzman once nicked a parking space she wanted?

[Pulcinella]

Blimey! I wonder if Robert Stoltzman once nicked a parking space she wanted?

But the comment about Tashi not following Messiaen's instructions seems warranted.
And to think that I ordered the CD on someone's recommendation hereabouts!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Haven't they got a copy of the score? The "non legato" marking is given only to the Piano - and Serkin observes this - the other parts are marked "decide, vigoureux, granitique" ("confident, vigorous, granite-like") with articulation marks showing that a rigid non legato style for all the players throughout the movement is simplistic, unfeasible and unwelcome.

(And the "hammering" piano in the preceding Louange that so bewildered them in the other recording - it's there in the score: the pianist plays what Messiaen writes in the score. The problem is the poor balance between the two instruments which they seemed to think was the pianist's fault!)

[BBMmk2]

I assume that you mean couplings to Turangalila.


Amazon has two options still available (or did you just mean that Alpie had not listed the earlier one?):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/mgj/Messiaen-Turangalila-Symphony-Olivier/B00000DNHT/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1489829980&sr=1-4&keywords=Rattle+messiaen

and
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Messiaen-Tu...attle+messiaen

Hi Pulcie! Yes it's the coupling on Rattle's Turangalila recording and also wondered whether Alpie had deliberately left this version out, in favour of just chamber music collections?