The influence of music
The work is Quartet for the End of Time and it was composed in a German prisoner of war camp and first played for 5,000 prisoners there by players he found among the prisoners..
His End of Time Quartet is to be played in Wellington on October 29 as part of a concert by the Ensemble Liaison Quartet, which is made up of internationally acclaimed musicians Timothy Young (piano) Svetlana Bogosavljevic (cello) and David Griffiths (clarinet) who will be joined by former NZSO concertmaster Wilma Smith on violin.
“Messiaen affected my whole life”, says McLeod.
Messiaen was a composer, an organist and also an ornithologist who said that some musical chords made him see colours. He not only believed that birdsong was the greatest music of all, but included birdsong transcriptions in most of his music.
“He gave such an impression of innocence”, adds McLeod “but in somebody else’s words he was not a halfwit, but a one and a halfwit”. She believes some sort of spirit guided Messiaen through potential disasters.
“He was a fearless composer, totally determined, and while other composers criticised his work he was always very kind and never said a bad word about others – especially if he knew them.
“Studying under him changed the kind of music I write, and although it took several decades to get to grips with the encounter my music ‘became more colourful and got birds’ “.
McLeod says the opera “Hohepa” she has written which will feature at the 2012 NZ Festival of the Arts was influenced by her studies with Messaien.
Besides Messiaen’s quartet, the Ensemble Liaison audience will also be able to hear Haydn’s Piano Trio in G ‘Gypsy Trio’ and Brahms Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano.
Chamber Music NZ 2011 ‘Kaleidoscopes’ season: Ensemble Liaison, October 29, Wellington Town Hall.










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