Messiaen: Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps cover

Messiaen: Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps

Composer
Released

An excellent recording of the Quartet for the End of Time, Messiaen’s essay on the apocalypse in written while he was a prisoner of war. The piece runs through Messiaen’s many languages — violent fire and brimstone, birdsong, and a breathless, sustained lyricism that is his image of eternity. All-stars are at work here: Shaham, Chung, and Wang, who especially rises to the occasion in the fifth and ninth movements.

Sean Wood

Recommended by

Suggestions
Land of Winter cover

Land of Winter

Alarm Will Sound
Linda Catlin Smith: Dark Flower cover

Linda Catlin Smith: Dark Flower

Thin Edge New Music Collective
For George Lewis cover

For George Lewis

Alarm Will Sound, Tyshawn Sorey
 Cape Fear cover

Cape Fear

Elmer Bernstein
 Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire; Herzgewächse; Ode to Napoleon cover

Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire; Herzgewächse; Ode to Napoleon

Arnold Schoenberg, Christine Schäfer, Ensemble InterContemporain, Pierre Boulez
Schnittke: Concerto For Choir cover

Schnittke: Concerto For Choir

USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir, Valery Polyansky
Farrenc: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3 cover

Farrenc: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3

Insula Orchestra, Laurence Equilbey
David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion cover

David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion

Ars Nova Copenhagen, Paul Hillier, Theatre of Voices
Carthage cover

Carthage

The Crossing, Donald Nally
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 cover

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Reiner