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Linn RECORDS, GLASGOW Road, Waterfoot, Glasgow G76 0EQ UK t: +44 (0)141 303 5027/9 f: +44 (0)141 303 5007 e: [email protected] William Conway – artistic director; cello Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n Alexander Janiczek – violin Chamber Works Sarah Bevan Baker – violin Catherine Marwood – viola Rosemary Elliot – flute Maximiliano Martín – clarinet Philip Moore – piano BCC Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Quartet for the end of Time) q I Liturgie de cristal (Liturgy of crystal) 2.42 w II Vocalise, pour l’Ange qui announce la fin du Temps (Vocalise for the Angel who announces the end of Time) 4.34 e III Abîme des oiseaux (The Abyss of the birds) 6.52 r IV Intermède (Interlude) 1.43 t V Louange à l’éternité de Jésus (Praise to the Eternity of Jesus) 7.35 y VI Danse de la fureur pour les sept trompettes (Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets) 6.10 u VII Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel, pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps (Cluster of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of Time) 7.02 i VIII Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus (Praise to the immortality of Jesus) 8.32 o Thème et variations 10.40 1) Pièce pour piano et quatuor à cordes 3.16 1! Fantaisie 8.16 1@ Le Merle noir 6.06 BCC Recorded at St Mary's Church, Haddington, 17th – 20th March 2007 Produced and Engineered by Philip Hobbs Post-production by Julia Thomas at Finesplice, UK Design by John Haxby With thanks to George Benjamin for his help with the interpretation of Fantaisie. 2 3 Quatuor pour la fin du Temps Messiaen recalled how he wrote the Quatuor in an interview with Antoine Goléa:

Inspired by the visionary language of the Apocalypse, evoked in the movement titles, In the Stalag with me were a violinist, a clarinettist and the Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du Temps is one of the most remarkable works to cellist Etienne Pasquier. I wrote an unpretentious little trio for have come out of World War II, composed by a musician whose religious faith was them which they played to me in the washrooms, because the a constant inspiration, even in the most arduous circumstances. In May 1940 the clarinettist had kept his instrument and someone had given German army entered France, and Messiaen was among the thousands of French the cellist a cello with three strings. Emboldened by this first soldiers rounded up by the Germans: he was taken to a makeshift camp in a huge experiment, called ‘Intermède’, I gradually added the seven field to the west of Nancy. There he met other musicians, including the clarinettist movements which surround it, and it is thus that my Quatuor Henri Akoka and the cellist Etienne Pasquier. This produced an immediate burst pour la fin du Temps has a total of eight sections. … An upright of creativity from Messiaen: as Pasquier later recalled, “Messiaen composed a solo piano was brought into the camp, very out of tune, the keys of clarinet piece for Akoka which was to become the third movement of the Quatuor – which seemed to stick at random. On this piano I played my ‘Abîme des oiseaux.’” Quatuor pour la fin du Temps, in front of an audience of five thousand people – the most diverse mixture of all classes in In July 1940, Messiaen, Akoka and Pasquier were transported to Stalag VIII-A, a society – farmworkers, labourers, intellectuals, career soldiers, Prisoner of War camp near Görlitz, about 70 miles east of Dresden. Two movements doctors and priests. Never have I been listened to with such of what was to become the Quatuor had earlier incarnations: the ‘Louange’ for cello attention and such understanding. reused music from the Fête des belles eaux (written in 1937 for an ensemble of six This stirring account needs to be treated with a little caution. Two important details Ondes Martenot), and the final violin ‘Louange’ as the second part of the Diptyque were corrected by the cellist Etienne Pasquier, (interviewed by Hannelore Lauerwald), for organ (1930). The ‘Intermède’ was the first movement to be written in Stalag about the size of the audience and the state of his cello: VIII-A, and it was rehearsed by Akoka, Pasquier and the violinist Jean Le Boulaire in the camp’s washrooms in September 1940. Once the authorities found a piano [The first performance of the Quatuor took place] in the hut for Messiaen, he got down in earnest to composing the rest of the Quatuor, using that we used as the theatre. … All the seats were taken, about manuscript paper provided by one of the guards: Hauptmann Karl-Erich Brüll. four hundred in all, and people listened raptly, their thoughts turning inward, even those who may have been listening The instruments available to Messiaen presented a challenge in terms of blend to chamber music for the first time. The concert took place and balance, and his solution was to present them in different combinations: solo on Wednesday, 15 January 1941, at six in the evening. It was (clarinet), in duos (cello and piano, violin and piano), and trios (clarinet and strings). bitterly cold outside the hut, and there was snow on the ground After the extraordinary opening movement, the whole ensemble next plays together and on the rooftops. … Messiaen repeatedly claimed that there in the sixth movement, but in vehement unison and octaves; it’s only in the seventh were only three strings on my cello, but in fact I played on four movement that the full power of the ensemble is unleashed. strings.

4 5 A review appeared in Lumignon, the French-language camp newspaper, on 1 April The young Messiaen wrote to his friend and former classmate Jean Langlais before 1941. Under the headline ‘Première at the Camp’, this gives a fascinating description the concert, inviting him to come along to “make lots of enthusiastic noise and try to of the audience reaction, and recognizes that something special had taken place: get the piece encored, as it is one of my best.” Over the next few years, Delbos and Messiaen played the piece a number of times, and it was published in 1934. In terms It was our good fortune to have witnessed in this camp the first of structure, this is one of Messiaen’s more straightforward works: the theme is stated performance of a masterpiece. And what’s strange is that in a quietly and is followed by four increasingly animated variations, leading to a fifth prison barracks we felt just the same tumultuous and partisan which is a rapturous restatement of the opening, with the violin playing the theme atmosphere of some premières: latent as much with passionate an octave higher. But though the form may be quite traditional, the sound world of acclaim as with angry denunciation. And while there was this early work is entirely Messiaen’s own. The Theme and Variations was Messiaen's fervent enthusiasm on some rows, it was impossible not to sense first piece of instrumental chamber music. Unusually, its dedication was expressed in the irritation on others. Reminiscences of the time speak of a musical notation: his pet-name for Claire was ‘Mi’ and the first edition of the score reaction like this when one evening in 1913 at the Théâtre des prints this as the note ‘E’ (‘Mi’ in French), the highest open string on a violin. Champs-Elysées, Le Sacre du printemps was first performed. It’s often a mark of a work’s greatness that it has provoked conflict In 1933, Messiaen wrote another piece for violin and piano to play in concerts with on the occasion of its birth. … The last note was followed by Claire. The Fantaisie was long thought to have been lost, but it was rediscovered by a moment of silence which established the sovereign mastery Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen among the composer’s papers, and published early in 2007 of the music. by Durand. The first known performance – listed as the ‘1re audition’ inthe Guide du Concert – took place at the Schola Cantorum in Paris on 18 March 1935, played Music for Violin and Piano: Theme and Variations; Fantaisie by Delbos and Messiaen. Composed at the same time as L’Ascension, it is a freer work Messiaen wrote his Theme and Variations in 1932 as a wedding present for his than the Theme and Variations, beginning with bold piano octaves that are followed by a new bride, Claire (Louise) Delbos – a talented musician in her own right. They descending motif on the violin, and then a long arching melody. The Fantaisie develops married in June 1932 and moved into a new home at 77, rue des Plantes, on the and repeats these three ideas, ending with a passionate restatement of the arching theme, southern fringes of the city. It was there that Messiaen composed the Theme and and a quick coda which ends the piece with robust and traditional G major chords. Variations, finishing it just in time for the première, given by Delbos and Messiaen, at a concert of the Cercle Musical de Paris on 22 November 1932 (which was also During the early 1940s Claire’s mental health and her increasing emotional instability Claire's birthday). The review in Le Ménestrel described the new piece as “aspiring were causes for grave concern, and Messiaen was occasionally obliged to work at the continuously to a spiritual world – there is great nobility here, but writing this kind homes of friends in order to compose in comparative peace and quiet. Claire's story of music is not without risks.” Another early review in the same journal praised has a tragic and poignant end. In 1949 she lost her memory after a hospital operation Messiaen’s craftsmanship, describing the work as “solidly constructed by a musician and a few years later was moved into a nursing home for specialist care. Messiaen who has studied counterpoint thoroughly and who knows how to find interesting visited her devotedly every Sunday, taking her small gifts such as painting equipment; musical ideas.” but she gradually declined further and died in April 1959. 6 7 Le Merle noir concert. Messiaen, in the last year of his life, was too frail to attend; but he was one Le Merle noir – The Blackbird – was composed in March 1952 as the test piece for of the distinguished composers – along with Boulez, Berio, Kurtág and others – who the flute class at the Paris Conservatoire. Messiaen took the opportunity to make wrote a work celebrating the occasion. The result was the Pièce for piano and string an important stylistic departure in this work: it the first of his pieces to attempt a quartet, in which jagged chords and more lyrical phrases alternate with the rapid song detailed depiction of a specific named bird. The first performances – in June 1952 – of one of Messiaen’s favourite birds, the Garden Warbler. were given at the fluteconcours by the most promising members of Gaston Crunelle’s © Nigel Simeone, March 2008 flute class that year. One of them was the British flautist Alexander Murray, who Nigel Simeone is professor of historical musicology at Sheffield University. He has written recently shared his memories of the piece in with the present writer: extensively on Messiaen and is co-author (with Peter Hill) of the widely acclaimed Messiaen (Yale We saw it for the first time four weeks before the concours and Univeristy Press, 2005), and a monograph on Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques (Ashgate, 2007). then dissected it four times a week with Gaston Crunelle. There were four morning classes – normally we each went to two, but BCC as the concourants were the only students remaining after the preliminary (accessit) exam we had the benefit of the week’s Hebrides Ensemble quota of lessons. Noël Lee, a pupil of Nadia Boulanger, was Since 1991 the Edinburgh-based Hebrides Ensemble has built a reputation as our accompanist, and was present daily for the last week. He Scotland's foremost chamber group, specialising in the performance of new and had analysed the last section and demonstrated the rhythmic twentieth century chamber music, music theatre and chamber opera. permutations – which did not make life easier – however, his utter reliability made memorising less of a problem. We all played Led by its artistic director, the cellist and conductor William Conway, and drawing from memory. … I was awarded a premier prix (I think the first upon the finest musicians within Scotland and Europe, Hebrides tours frequently, British student to be so lucky). … Messiaen was present in class appears at international music festivals and broadcasts and records regularly. Its at least once, as I remember, and of course at the concours. concerts are acclaimed for their imaginative and innovative programming and for the outstanding quality of performance. Pièce pour piano et quatuor à cordes Alfred Schlee (1901-1999) was a legend in the world of music publishing – one of the Festival appearances include regular performances at the Edinburgh International leading lights of Universal Edition in Vienna, and a loyal supporter of Messiaen’s Festival, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the St Magnus Festival music. Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod gave house concerts at Universal Edition’s on Orkney. The Ensemble has commissioned and premiered new works by more offices in 1946 and 1947, and in the 1950s, Universal Edition published two important than fifty composers including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Gordon McPherson, Stuart pieces by Messiaen: Cantéyodjayâ and Oiseaux exotiques – both thanks to Dr Schlee’s MacRae, Haflidi Hallgrimsson, Sally Beamish and Nigel Osborne, and performs a enthusiasm. When Dr Schlee celebrated his ninetieth birthday with a concert in celebrated series of concerts and composition workshops each year at the Royal Vienna on 18 November 1991, twenty distinguished composers wrote pieces for a Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and at Edinburgh University. 8 9 As well as chamber music, the Ensemble commissions and performs new music theatre and chamber opera to great acclaim, including works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Lyell Cresswell and David Fennessy.

For full information on all of the Ensemble's activities, please visit www.hebridesensemble.org.uk BCC

William Conway - artistic director William Conway was born in Glasgow and studied at both the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Royal College of Music where he was a prodigious prizewinner. He is principal cellist of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and for ten years held the same position with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, performing regularly as soloist and director. He has recorded extensively, including the cello concerto written for him by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as Linn is an independent precision engineering company specialising in top quality audio (CKD 286) a disc of music by John Bevan Baker for Linn Records . and video reproduction. Founded by Ivor Tiefenbrun, MBE in Glasgow, Scotland in 1972, the company grew out of Ivor’s love of music and the belief that he could vastly improve the In 1994 William was a prizewinner at the Leeds Conductors' Competition and has sound quality of his own hi-fi system. Now sold in over 45 countries, Linn remains unremittingly since established a dual career as cellist and conductor worldwide. He has conducted committed to manufacturing products for applications where sound quality matters. the major Scottish orchestras as well as Northern Sinfonia, English Sinfonia, Chamber Linn strives to thrill customers who want the most out of life with demonstrably higher fidelity Orchestra of Europe and the symphony orchestras of Cairo, Zagreb, Antwerp, Phoenix complete audio and video entertainment solutions. Our standards also ensure that even the most and Göttingen in all repertoires including opera. affordable Linn system can communicate the sheer thrill and emotion of the performance. Linn has earned a unique reputation in the world of specialist hi-fi and multi-channel sound He is co-founder and Artistic Director of Hebrides Ensemble and has commissioned recording and reproduction. The company can now satisfy the demanding requirement of any over fifty new works in the last seventeen years. William has been presented with discriminating customer who cares about sound quality, longevity and reliability. a Scottish Society of Composers Award for “an outstanding contribution to the Visit www.linn.co.uk for more information promotion of contemporary music”. and to find your nearest Linn dealer.

He plays on a cello from 1695 by Giovanni Tononi of Bologna. Linn PRODUCTS LTD, GLASGOW Road, Waterfoot, Glasgow G76 0EQ UK t: +44 (0)141 307 7777 f: +44 (0)141 644 4262 e: [email protected]

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