Ittingen Pfingstkonzerte – Concert 5

One can be mistaken about many things. But not about eternity. As the Brothers Grimm described it, after all, eternity is not a state, but a story: a little bird that comes every hundred years to peck at a mountain. When the mountain has disappeared, a second of eternity has passed. This is not a metaphor; it is a measure.

György Ligeti created a mechanical monument to this concept: a hundred metronomes ticking as if trying to outdo each other. An absurd concert of time that listens to itself until it falls silent. In the end, a single beat remains. Then: nothing more.

Olivier Messiaen wrote his Quartet for the End of Time in a prisoner-of-war camp. It is music written against hunger, against the cold and against despair, but not against time. Time flows differently in it; it is intangible. The rhythms are boundless and the notes shine as if they came from far away. The quartet tells the story of angels with rainbows above their heads and of birds circling above the abyss. It is a hymn of praise to that which does not pass away.

And Woody Allen? He says he is not afraid of death; he just doesn't want to be around when it arrives. Perhaps we all feel that way. But this music is here. For a moment, we are with it.

Franz Schubert
Abschied von der Erde D 829
for voice and piano

Olivier Messiaen
L'eau
from Fête des belles eaux
for six Ondes Martenots,
performed via audio recording

Jürg Kienberger
Apropos Ewigkeit

Olivier Messiaen
O Sacrum Convivium
for mixed choir

György Ligeti
Poème Symphonique
for 100 metronomes

Olivier Messiaen
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
for clarinet, violin,
cello and piano

In the Remise