A Lotus Blossoming

The major work in this program – Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time – could hardly have had a bleaker genesis. Its creator, incarcerated in a prison camp, gained inspiration to write it from the presence of a violinist, clarinettist and cellist among the prisoners. End of Time comes vibrantly to life in this performance. Alexander von Zemlinsky’s opener, Trio for clarinet, cello and piano in D minor, is relatively lightweight, but the piece is exquisitely realised by clarinettist David Griffiths, cellist Svetlana Bogosavljevic and pianist Timothy Young.