Online - Live From London Summer: Angel of the Apocalypse

Four of the UK’s most renowned solo and chamber musicians, Julian Bliss, Katya Apekisheva, Jack Liebeck and Sheku Kanneh-Mason unite to take you on an inspirational journey through Messiaen’s masterwork, Quartet for the End of Time. Written whilst Messiaen was incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp and dedicated to the Angel of the Apocalypse, it is scored for the unusual combination of instruments available to him for its premiere, given by his fellow musician prisoners in 1941. The VOCES8 Centre’s intimate setting provides a perfect backdrop for this hauntingly vivid piece which makes one ponder our existence 'on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam' (Carl Sagan). Whilst Messiaen musics hope from despair, inspired by text from the Book of Revelation, Vaughan Williams turns to George Meredith's poem The Lark Ascending for his inspiration. It was written in 1914 and set in its best-known orchestral version after World War 1. This fresh arrangement of The Lark Ascending pairs VOCES8’s sublime voices with Jack Liebeck’s 'beguiling silvery tone' (BBC Music Magazine) in a soaring slice of heaven.

Ticket holders may access the concert here: https://page.inplayer.com/livefromlondonsummer/item.html?id=203378