Few musical works are as emblematic of the time and
circumstances of their composition as Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Written in 1941 while the composer was held as a prisoner-of-war, Messiaen scored the ensemble for the only
combination available to him in terms of personnel and instruments: violin,
clarinet, cello, and piano. A strong example of music’s humanistic powers, the
premiere performance was given on a frozen night at Stalag VIII-A—a quartet of
soldiers finding spiritual solace before an audience of fellow prisoners and
their captors.
The Ensemble ACJW’s performance Wednesday night at Paul
Recital Hall delivered in terms of precision and acuity, but was spotty in
terms of fire and style. Because of the complexity in the work’s construction
and notation, it takes a stellar group to properly convey Messiaen’s use of
additive rhythms, limited transposition, and bird-song transcription.
Clarinetist Liam Burke and pianist Tyler Wottrich were
confident and virtuosic throughout, navigating the work’s most rhythmic and
capricious moments. Particularly in the solo clarinet’s movement, “Abîme des
oiseaux,” Burke easily moved between glacially paced melodies and fleeting, rapid-fire
bird calls. Encompassing a wide dynamic range, he provided heart-stopping
moments when transitioning from whispers into full-blown primal screams.
Wottrich’s crystalline voicing of Messiaen’s thick chordal
clusters provided an enhanced sense of clarity, while his communication with
the rest of the quartet was unparalleled. Particularly in the final “Louange,”
Wottrich enhanced the violin’s transcendent lines, moving through each repeated
rhythm to bring both urgency and respite as needed.
Unfortunately, the strings didn’t fare as well, with cellist
Hannah Collins lacking both in terms of projection and intonation. Although
there were fine moments in her solo “Louange,” Collins should have brought more
bite to the heavier moments of the work—particularly in the second movement’s
anxious trills and scales, as well as the air-raid-siren glissandos later in
the piece. Grace Park gave a moving account of the final movement’s peaceful
coda, but didn’t always take enough of a leadership position when dictating the
group’s pacing and attack during the ferociously difficult “Danse de la
fureur.”
Opening the program was an uneven account of
Mozart’s Serenade in C minor for wind
octet that didn’t deliver in terms of ensemble. While the overall sound was
robust and polished, there was a lack of soloistic panache to oboist Stuart Breczinski
and clarinetist Gabriel Campos Zamora’s principal playing. The group could have
done much more to explore the softer elements of the work, rather than using
each movement’s interplay as an opportunity to outdo each other, leaving a
unified sense of intonation, articulation, and note length falling by the
wayside.