AKOKA: Reframing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time

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The Messiaen performance puts a human face on a disparate body. I hear the piece a little differently now, and love it a little more, and what more can a recording do? — Gramophone Magazine, July 2017

Release Date: 21st Apr 2017
Catalogue No: PTC5186560
Label: Pentatone
Series: Oxingale Series
Length: 63 minutes

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David Krakauer: Akoka

Work length5:58

$1.00

$1.30

David Krakauer, Matt Haimovitz, Jonathan Crow, Geoffrey Burleson

Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps

Work length48:50

$12.00

$15.60

David Krakauer, Jonathan Crow, Matt Haimovitz, Geoffrey Burleson

I. Liturgie de cristal

Track length2:47

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$1.30

II. Vocalise pour l'ange qui annonce la fin du temps

Track length5:25

$1.00

$1.30

III. Abîme des oiseaux

Track length7:20

$2.00

$2.60

IV. Intermède

Track length1:46

$1.00

$1.30

V. Louange à l'éternité de Jésus

Track length8:31

$2.00

$2.60

VI. Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes

Track length6:19

$1.00

$1.30

VII. Fouillis d'arcs-en-ciel, pour l'ange qui annonce la fin du temps

Track length7:24

$2.00

$2.60

VIII. Louange à l'immortalité de Jésus

Track length9:18

$2.00

$2.60

Socalled,: Meanwhile...

Work length8:47

$2.00

$2.60

Matt Haimovitz, David Krakauer, Socalled, Geoff Nuttall, Fréderic Chiu

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This release fits into the PENTATONE Oxingale series, which was established when PENTATONE and Oxingale Records joined forces in February 2015.

In their “brilliantly inventive” (The New York Times) live recording, clarinetist David Krakauer and cellist Matt Haimovitz’s AKOKA lift Messiaen's transcendent 1940 - 41 work Quartet for the End of Time out of the polite context of a chamber music performance, placing it in a dramatic 21st century setting that drives home its gravity and impact.

AKOKA was inspired by the wartime experience of Jewish clarinetist Henri Akoka, who premiered the Quartet for the End of Time with Messiaen himself at the German prisoner - of - war camp in which they were both interred. Henri Akoka's vibrant personality and the story of his survival, with all its twists and turns, is the inspiration for this recording, which brings out the human aspect of this composition, seen through the eyes of one individual caught up in terrifying events beyond his control.

Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time is bookended by Akoka, Krakauer’s highly improvisational, Sephardic - tinged piece, and meanwhile are - mix by hip - hop/klezmer artist Socalled, who joins the ensemble on electronics. As the forces of fundamentalism, intolerance and violence intensify in today's world, this mounting of Messiaen’s great work is all the more timely.

Reviews

July 2017

The Messiaen performance puts a human face on a disparate body. I hear the piece a little differently now, and love it a little more, and what more can a recording do?

AKOKA: Reframing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time

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