Verklärte Nacht

Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)
Quatuor pour la fin du temps

Prof. Kalle Randalu piano
Prof. Julius Kircher clarinet
Prof. Laurent Albrecht Breuninger violin
Bernhard Lörcher violoncello

The quartet was composed during Messiaen's time as a prisoner of war in Silesia between 1940 and 1942. The unusual instrumentation resulted from the fact that there were three musicians among his fellow prisoners: a violinist, a clarinettist and a cellist. Messiaen wrote the piano part for himself. The work is based on a text from chapter 10, 1 - 7 of the Apocalypse of John: And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow on his head, and his face as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire ...

Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951)
„Verklärte Nacht“ (Transfigured Night) string sextet op. 4

Prof. Sergey Khachatryan violin
Prof. Christian Ostertag violin
Prof. German Tcakulov viola
Prof. Johannes Lüthy viola
Mikhayel Hakhnazaryan violoncello
Bernhard Lörcher violoncello

Richard Dehmel's collection of poems Weib und Welt was published in 1896. Schönberg also took the poem on which Verklärte Nacht is based from this collection.  Schönberg's music takes on the dramatic, excited mood of the conversation between two lovers and their tension is reflected in the highly expressive, sensually charged sounds of the work. The sextet formally depicts the five-part verse form. 

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