Ensemble Lumen

Elizabeth Layton  violin
Edith Salzmann  cello
Lloyd Van’t Hoff  clarinet
Anna Goldsworthy  piano

Messiaen  Quartet for the End of Time

Captured and imprisoned by the German Army in a prisoner-of-war camp, Messiaen wrote Quartet for the End of Time using paper and a pencil given by a sympathetic guard. The work is a series of eight movements relating to a Biblical passage from Revelation, depicting the Angel of the Apocalypse. Though one might interpret the work as owing to his own experiences as a prisoner, Messiaen intended it to be an acknowledgement of the end of past and future, and the beginning of eternity.