RAINBOW AND ABYSS Presented by Liszt Academy

Rainbow and Abyss: this is the surprisingly paradoxical and yet apposite title of this chamber recital held in tribute to Olivier Messiaen, who was born 110 years ago. Messiaen himself included odd titles in the two eight-movement works presented here. The first is Preludes for piano, completed by the composer when he was just 20 years old and which is regarded as his first mature work. We find eccentricity in such titles as ‘The Dove’, which the composer associated with the colours orange and violet, and ‘Song of Ecstasy in a Sad Landscape’, in which grey, mauve, Prussian blue and silver dominate. The movements of Quartet for the End of Time, which was written while the composer was interned in the Görlitz prisoner of war camp in 1941, are similarly inventive and full of fantasy. Here, the fourth movement is ‘Abyss of the Birds’, while the word ‘rainbow’ appears in the lengthy title given to the seventh. The prisoners found a piano, violin, clarinet and cello in the camp, so the deeply religious Messiaen grabbed the opportunity to write music of consolation in praise of God for his 5,000 fellow inmates.