Quartet for the End of Time - Messiaen

There was not enough room in the Hugh Lane Gallery last Sunday to contain the throng which came to hear Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. Those who arrived in time to get a seat were rewarded by a performance of riveting intensity. There was such a sense of occasion that an unusual hush descended on the audience even before the artists appeared.

Messiaen's work, inspired by a passage from St John's visionary Apocalypse - "There shall be Time no longer . . . the mystery of God shall be consummated" - could be described as mystical programme music; certainly the composer's prefatory notes are to be taken very seriously indeed. Without them it would be hard to link the music to the "ineffable harmonies of heaven" and to keep in mind that the music is intended to be an emblem of the divine.

With lesser performers the very long, very slow melodies of some of the movements could easily sag, but, whether playing together or apart, Gillian Williams (violin), Arun Rao (cello) and John Finucane (clarinet) brought to the work a rapt attention which was shared by the audience. Philippe Cassard (piano), at times caressing the keys, at times crashing down on them, was the benevolent genius who guided the ensemble through the maze of rhythms and helped to establish an order above the shifting sands of sound. No one player can be singled out, however; the four separate contributions melded into one.