(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 21 - Four musicians, detained in the German concentration camp of Görlitz, in Lower Silesia, on January 15 1941 performed for the first time a composition destined to become one of the chamber music masterpieces of the twentieth century.
The pianist Olivier Messiaen signed the Quatuor pour la fin du Temps, imprisoned together with the other three companions, the violinist Jean Le Boulaire, the cellist Etienne Pasquier and the clarinetist Henri Akoka.
That musical page full of meanings composed in a few months is proposed by the Roman Philharmonic in collaboration with ANSA as part of the ANSA project for Culture, on 26 January in the concert entitled 'The time of the end, four lives in the Görlitz apocalypse', among the events for the Day of Remembrance.
It will be streamed on the Academy's Facebook page and YouTube channel, on Ansa.it and on the agency's social channels.
On stage in the Sala Casella at 9 pm an exceptional quartet with the artistic director of the Roman Philharmonic Andrea Lucchesini on the piano, Marco Rizzi on the violin, Gabriele Mirabassi on the clarinet, Mario Brunello on the cello.
The Quatuor is performed entirely in the original version.
Between one and the other of the eight sections, the narrating voice of Guido Barbieri - music critic, playwright, voice of Radio3 - tells the story of the four detained musicians, performers of the Quatuor's world premiere and reconstructs their lives before, during and after that historic performance; four different existences that contain hopes, oblivions, repentances, disappointments and which constitute the faithful mirror of the historical, tragic and conflict-ridden time in which they took place.
"The result - says Barbieri - is a reflection on time: on what a pivotal work of art of the twentieth century such as the Quatuor di Messiaen sowed, sprouted and still continues to harvest. A 'contemporary apocalypse' which, like the one narrated by the New Testament does not at all mark the end of time, but, always and in any case, the utopia of a new beginning ".
The concert is part of the review "Chamber music from baroque to contemporary" made with the contribution of the Lazio Region.
(HANDLE).