Star rating: ****
PERFORMANCES of Messiaen's great war camp epic, the Quartet for the End of Time, are usually characterised by their intensity, spirituality, radiance, fervour or sheer transcendence.
The distinguished account of the eight-movement work given on Friday by the RSAMD's head of keyboard, Aaron Shorr, two SCO principals, cellist David Watkin and clarinettist Maximiliano Martin, and the young Armenian violinist Ani Batikian, a junior fellow at the academy, had all of these elements but was particularly distinctive for another characteristic that, for want of a better term, I'll call its philosophical presentation.
In what sense philosophical? It was a beautiful interpretation of restraint and understatement, wholly without overlay: even the dance of fury was refreshingly free of aggressive delivery. The Intermezzo was gentle in its wit. The first movement just floated then stopped, its incredible complexities imperceptible in this weightless performance.
Martin's long solo movement was fluid and unaffected. Watkin's great cello solo was so long-breathed and concentrated that time seemed to pause; and the one unnecessary urgency was Batikian's perhaps too-swift unfolding of the rapturous closing movement. Nonetheless, she's a wonderful violinist, despite her youth.
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