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]