This weekend, Page Auditorium will be swept into the apocalypse-through classical, hip-hop and klezmer music, that is.
Akoka: After Messiaen's 'Quartet for the End of Time' is a refreshing approach to French composer Olivier Messiaen's seminal Quartet for the End of Time. As part of Duke Performances' year-long Art/Politics/Now series, the reframing of Messiaen's swelling masterpiece explores hope in time of despair, which resonates well beyond the 20th century.
"Every time I hear [Quartet] performed, it is a remarkably moving piece of music, and I believe so because it was written under such extreme circumstances," said Duke Performances Director Aaron Greenwald.
Messiaen wrote Quartet in 1941 when he was a prisoner in a German POW camp where he met the three musicians who first performed it with him, including Jewish clarinetist Henri Akoka. The musicians are trying to reflect Akoka's unique experience through their rendition of Messiaen's work.
"The idea of Akoka, this Jewish guy caught in the middle of this huge world conflict, World War II, the Holocaust--it's timely to address these issues of people in general looking at the world today and looking at the world problems," said clarinetist David Krakauer. "It's a universal thing. We go through these major upheavals and there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is a message of hope there."
Krakauer will begin the night with an improvisational piece incorporating an area of his expertise, klezmer. He will then be joined by cellist Matt Haimovitz, pianist Geoffrey Burleson and violinist Todd Reynolds as they perform the 70-minute quartet. Hip-hop/klezmer artist DJ Socalled will close the night with an remix using sound clips from segments of the quartet performance.
Though Greenwald said the quartet stands alone as one of the masterpieces of the century, the artists said they hope their rendition ushers Messiaen's work into the new era by bringing in modern elements that will attract a new crowd.
"I think that younger classical musicians recognize that people their age are not coming to see them," he said. "Musicians get it-they think classical music is wonderful, but it's cloaked in all this bullshit decorum."
In addition to the Saturday night show, Haimovitz and Burleson will perform their Odd Couple Friday at The Pinhook. Haimovitz has been playing classical music in less formal settings because he enjoys the intimacy and different crowds that these smaller venues bring. In Odd Couple, the two musicians will explore, through classic sonatas, the unlikely relationship between the piano and the cello. The two seemingly mismatched instruments eventually have a conversation and "hook up."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.