De Klassieke Duif: Reflection

Celliste Ella van Poucke en violist Stephen Waarts presenteren in De Duif een bijzonder herdenkingsconcert uit hun reeks ‘De Klassieke Duif’, met Messiaens aangrijpende ‘Quatuor pour la Fin de Temps’ en aanvullende werken van Bach en Poulenc.

Voor dit indringende herdenkingsconcert brengen zij, samen met Nicolas Baldeyrou (klarinet) en Ben Kim (piano) het meesterwerk van Olivier Messiaen ‘Quatuor pour la Fin de Temps’ ten gehore—gecomponeerd in een Pools krijgsgevangenenkamp en daar voor het eerst uitgevoerd, onder barre omstandigheden, voor een publiek van 5000 medegevangenen en Duitse soldaten in 1941. ‘They sat perfectly still, in awe. Not one person stirred. Everyone listened reverently, with an almost religious respect, including those who perhaps were hearing chamber music for the first time’. Het was een vrij ongewone combinatie van instrumenten maar dit waren de enige muzikanten die op dat moment ook in het kamp werden gevangen gehouden.

Ter aanvulling op Messiaen hebben Ella van Poucke en Stephen Waarts werken gekozen van J.S. Bach en Francis Poulenc, die elk een ander perspectief bieden op het werk van Messiaen.

Programma:
J.S. Bach – Sonate voor viool en piano in E-groot BWV 1016
F. Poulenc – Sonate voor klarinet en piano
O. Messiaen – Quatuor pour la fin du Temps

Hierbij hun woorden over het gekozen repertoire:

Ella and I would like to invite you to the third concert of our 2025 season of “De Klassieke Duif”. The program we’ve chosen, “Reflection”, honors the national commemoration of Remembrance Day on May 4, and it would be hard to find a more suitable piece for this occasion than Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la Fin de Temps, written while Messiaen himself was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp by the nazis and premiered by his fellow prisoners in the camp. The mere fact that the piece was written and performed at all is quite a miracle, requiring among other things the cooperation of a sympathetic prison guard, for pen and paper, and the donations of fellow camp members to buy a cello. That such a groundbreaking masterpiece emerged from the process is a gift, and while the quartet is titled “for the end of time”, one could equally describe it as being “timeless”, remaining as relevant and striking as ever, and in a successful performance, putting the listener into a state where the normal tempo of time is suspended. To complement the Messiaen we have chosen works by J.S. Bach and Francis Poulenc, each of which brings a different perspective to the Messiaen. Bach’s Violin Sonata no. 3, BWV 1016, is one of his most beautiful pieces for violin and underperformed compared to his Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. Mostly on the sunny side, it nevertheless contains one of his most heartbreaking slow movements, in the desolate key of c sharp minor. The Poulenc clarinet sonata is similar in this regard, two very fun virtuosic movements structured around one of his most touching slow movements, and the piece has justly become one of his most popular chamber works.

Another aspect of the program which I’d like to bring attention to is the deeply religious, christian faith of each of the composers. Bach, Poulenc, and Messiaen were all inspired by their faith to write some of the most important sacred music in the classical repertoire. The Bach and Poulenc pieces on our program are secular, while nevertheless of course being influenced by their belief, but in the Messiaen Quatuor the religious aspect is front and center, with the last movement for example being titled “Louange à l’Immortalité de Jésus”. Messiaen also was fascinated by birds, believing them to be messengers of God, and so one can hear birds throughout the piece. Regardless of any religious beliefs, I’m always inspired when playing this music to search for something beyond any one of us individually, and I hope our program today inspires you to reflect within and do the same.