Feeding The Soul In Extreme Circumstances

Coincidence time again. I've just posted about Arvo Part and how I have several disks, some of which really grab me and others that don't. I can say the same thing about the music of Olivier Messiaen and today's disk happens to be one of those that I really appreciate, Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps ( Quartet For The End Of Time ). Quite a high powered quartet has been assembled for this recording too, Gil Shaham on violin, Paul Meyer on clarinet, Jian Wang on cello and Myung-Whun Chung on piano. This is a piece of music that is difficult to divorce from its' conception, written by Messiaen while he was in a German prisoner of war camp in WW2 ( nb Prisoner of war camp, not concentration camp but unpleasant enough ) The work was scored for the available resources both in terms of players and instruments. Messiaen's stated inspiration was as ever spiritual but the religiosity isn't immediately apparent. As would be expected it is essentially a serious, downbeat piece but not without hope for the eventual triumph of the human spirit and the love of God. What seems remarkable now is that this very serious work was looked forward to so much and received with such enthusiasm by the first audiences in the camp, both of prisoners and camp commandants, when it might have been expected that some sort of escapist variety show would have gone down better.