No great Messiaen fan, I have always had high regard for his "Quartet
for the End of Time." And yet, it never touched me as personally as
tonight.  At a high-school senior recital.

The work has had some strange venues, beginning with its 1941 premiere
in a German prison camp in Silesia.  Legend has it that 5,000 of Messiaen's
fellow prisoners attended, providing the composer with an audience
expressing "more attention and understanding" than any other listener
in Messiaen's experience.

Tonight's less dramatic, but still very surprising setting for the
50-minute, devilishly difficult work was San Anselmo's San Domenico
School.  The players: four students entering music schools in the fall.

Well-known for his dry sense of humor, George Thomson, director of the
school's Virtuoso Program, apparently thought that just *before* their
college freshman year, the four could have some fun with "Quatuor pour
la fin du temps." Well, they did (after a couple of shaky Bach performances,
a weak Kreisler and a spirited Dvorak), but something strange happened
at the end.  The young ones took flight, appropriately enough in the
Messiaen, and reached amazing heights in the finale.

Even at the beginning, it all went surprisingly well, making one wonder
if they can sustain the performance.  They did.  With her head virtually
in the keyboard, and counting furiously through the opening "Crystal
Liturgy," pianist Jannie Lo established a solid, pace-setting beat, with
great ostinato chords.  Samantha LaValley's clarinet sang Messiaen's
birdsongs, and Maggie Barr played the violin part well enough...  but
keep that name in mind.

Miya Perry is a fine cellist, and she got through "Praise to the Eternity
of Jesus," which is a notable accomplishment, considering the demands
of the super-lengthy, impossible slow-mo' solo.

The four lit into the "Dance of Wrath," handling the ever-changing rhythms
well, settling into the "Tangle of Rainbows with a sure touch.  And then
came the inexplicable.  The last movement, "In Praise of the Immortality
of Jesus," is a quiet, glorious meditation, a violin-piano completion
of the cello's song earlier.

Barr and Lo sustained the long line, playing beautifully, even if
technically their performance reflected the reality of their age and
experience.  This was music beyond the notes, serene and joyful, with
an intellectual, artistic and spiritual depth that couldn't have come
from these very young people - except that it did.  It boggles the mind
to consider what they may accomplish in four years, what kind of senior
recital will they give then.  If you're near Santa Cruz or Peabody, make
a note now to check it out.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
[log in to unmask]