Oliver Messiaens - Quatuor Pour Le Fin Du Temps

Amazon Editorial Review
"Despite being composed in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, Messiaen's masterpiece teems with music of ethereal beauty. Inspired by the Book of Revelations, it features many of his unique stylistic fingerprints–unison homophonic passages, birdcalls, and surprising rhythmic displacements among them. Even with only four instruments (a choice dictated by those available in the camp), Messiaen achieves striking coloristic effects. Virtually any performance by four musicians capable of meeting the piece's technical and stylistic demands will make a telling effect, and this one certainly does. It's one of the slower available performances, primarily because fast movements tend to be faster and slower ones slower than such rivals as the classic Tashi reading on RCA and the vibrant Russian one led by Oleg Kagan on Live Classics. At times, slow movements lack the note-to-note tension that would make them even more powerful, but Messiaen fans will want to hear Shaham, Chung, & Co. in his greatest chamber work." Dan Davis

Amazon Information
Composer: Olivier Messiaen
Performer: Jian Wang, Myung-Whun Chung, Gil Shaham
Audio CD (January 9, 2001)
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Deutsche Grammophon (469 052-2)
ASIN: B00004TL2R

Tracklist
01 - I. Liturgie De Cristal Listen
02 - II. Vocalise, Pour L'Ange Qui Annonce La Fin Du Temps Listen
03 - III. Abime Des Oiseaux Listen
04 - IV. Intermede Listen
05 - V. Louange A L'Eternite De Jesus Listen
06 - VI. Danse De La Fureur Listen
07 - VII. Fouillis D'arcs-en-ciel, Pour I'Ange Qui Annonce La Fin Du Temps Listen
08 - VIII. Louange A L'lmmortalite De Jesus Listen

Quatuor pour la fin du temps, for violin, cello, clarinet & piano, I/22
Composed by Olivier Messiaen
with Myung-Whun Chung, Gil Shaham, Jian Wang