Abme des oiseaux - Messiaen | Julien Herv, clarinet

Especially for Remembrance Day 2021 our clarinetist Julien Hervé plays Messiaen's Abîme des oiseaux ('Abyss of the birds') in the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam. This piece for clarinet solo is part of the Quatuor pour la fin du temps that Olivier Messiaen composed in 1940 in prisoner-of-war camp Stalag VIII-A. The music expresses human hope in hopeless times. 'The abyss,' wrote Messiaen, 'that is Time, with its sorrow, its idleness. The birds, they are the opposite of Time: our longing for light, for stars and rainbows, and for elated singing.'