For those unaware, the provocative and beguiling Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) comprises the crème de la crème of the San Francisco Bay Area’s musicians.

Their motto: nothing is out of bounds, and anything is possible. Presenters of all types of music including small ensemble, vocal, orchestral, multi-media and operatic, a select group comes together for this recording of Olivier Messiaen’s seminal chamber work, Quartet for the End of Time.

Written during the composer’s confinement in World War II, he maintained hope, expressing, “The abyss is Time with its sadness, its weariness. The birds are the opposite … our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant songs.”

LCCE co-founder and prize-winning composer Kurt Rohde echoes this sentiment in his Messiaen-inspired one wing for violin and piano, heard here in its world-premiere recording.

Recorded live in February 2020 at the Berkeley Hillside Club and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Quartet for the End of Time opens with the explorative, if not gently cautious Liturgie de cristal (Crystal liturgy) and backs that up with the sterner, more defiant Vocalise, pour l’ange qui annonce la fin du temps (Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of time), the wistful Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the birds), and then we get the short, but beautifully perky, and oh-so sweet Intermède (Interlude).

Along next is the heartfelt yearning of grounded sorrow within Louange à l’éternité de Jésus (Praise to the eternity of Jesus) and then the pace is picked back up for the furtively expansive Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes (Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets), the plaintive longing of Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel, pour l’ange qui annonce la fin du temps (Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time, the work coming to a close on the doleful embrace of Louange àl’immoralité de Jésus (Praise to the immortality of Jesus), and then we are presented the all-encompassing, 12 minute opus from Kurt Rohde of one wing.

Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Quartet for the End of Time
1. Liturgie de cristal (Crystal liturgy) (2.43)
2. Vocalise, pour l’ange qui annonce la fin du temps (Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of time) (4.53)
3. Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the birds) (7.23)
4. Intermède (Interlude) (1.42)
5. Louange à l’éternité de Jésus (Praise to the eternity of Jesus) (8.21)
6. Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes (Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets) (6.04)
7. Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel, pour l’ange qui annonce la fin du temps (Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time) (7.02)
8. Louange àl’immoralité de Jésus (Praise to the immortality of Jesus) (7.12)

Kurt Rohde (b. 1966)
9. one wing * (12.45)

[Total time: 58.17]

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble:
Jerome Simas clarinet
Anna Presler violin *
Tanya Tomkins cello
Eric Zivian piano *

www.LeftCoastEnsemble.org

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