Catalogue

Summary:

The provocative and beguiling Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) comprises the crème de la crème of the San Francisco Bay Area’s musicians. Their motto: nothing is out of bounds, and anything is possible. Presenters of all types of music including small ensemble, vocal, orchestral, multi-media and operatic, a select group comes together for this recording of Olivier Messiaen’s seminal chamber work, Quartet for the End of Time. Written during the composer’s confinement in World War II, he maintained hope, expressing, “The abyss is Time with its sadness, its weariness. The birds are the opposite … our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant songs.” LCCE co-founder and prize-winning composer Kurt Rohde echoes this sentiment in his Messiaen-inspired one wing for violin and piano, heard here in its world-premiere recording.

critical acclaim for Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
“pathos and passion” – San Francisco Classical Voice

“like all of Left Coast’s endeavors, the evening married standard repertoire and contemporary works in provocative and beguiling ways” – San Francisco Classical Voice

Tracklist:

OLIVIER MESSIAEN (1908 – 1992)
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Quartet for the End of Time
1. Liturgie de cristal (Crystal liturgy) (2.43)
2. Vocalise, pour l’ange qui annonce la fin du temps (Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of time) (4.53)
3. Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the birds) (7.23)
4. Intermède (Interlude) (1.42)
5. Louange à l’éternité de Jésus (Praise to the eternity of Jesus) (8.21)
6. Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes (Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets) (6.04)
7. Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel, pour l’ange qui annonce la fin du temps (Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time (7.02)
8. Louange à l’immoralité de Jésus (Praise to the immortality of Jesus) (7.12)

KURT ROHDE (b. 1966)
9. one wing * (12.45)

Total time: 58.17

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
Jerome Simas clarinet
Anna Presler violin *
Tanya Tomkins cello
Eric Zivian piano *

Recorded live: February 2020, Berkeley Hillside Club and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Recording and Mixing by Zach Miley Mastered by Robert Friedrich for Five/Four Productions, Ltd