OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 27 March 2012

INSPIRED by the most expansive of concepts, the Hebrides Ensemble’s latest concert tour featured exciting new works by contemporary British composers Mark Boden and Suzanne Parry, together with Messiaen’s timeless masterwork Quatuor pour la fin du temps / Quartet For The End Of Time.

Each work provided meditations on the concept of time, heightened by the quality of performance and the juxtaposition of historical and newly commissioned repertoire. The instrumentation of Messsiaen’s original work – violin, cello, clarinet and piano – provided an aural link between the works and an expansive palette of colour and texture.

Hebrides Ensemble (photo Sussie Ahlburg)

Mark Boden’s Between Dreams and Waking (2012) is a wonderfully immersive piece, moving beautifully from hesitancy and expectation into fluid, ethereal textures. As the work unfolds the searching voices of clarinet, violin and cello, like light filtering through darkness, become increasingly animated with rhythm and harmony more densely entwined. Inspired by Adam Zagajewski’s poem Balance, Boden’s meditation on time is a work punctuated by silence, characterised by depth and reverberation in the mind of the listener. Its spartan delicacy is akin to bodily sensation and the sense of suspension within this work is both lyrical and powerful, moving between consciousness; awake and in dreams. It will be exciting to see the evolving work of this young composer in future performances.

Suzanne Parry John’s Introspections and Lullabies For An Unborn Child (2012) felt less dynamic in comparison. In the Boden piece there is a clear sense of an emerging voice, while in Parry John’s response to time this feels subsumed in an even, albeit lyrical work.The pulse of life in the piano which ebbs and flows throughout the work exists in a pastiche of melodic fragments, overlaid and intertwined in a Romantic rather than essential way. Like its subject it feels unformed and stylistically derivative, rather than speaking in its own unique voice.

The second part of the programme featured a short film delivered by author and theologian Dr Richard Holloway on the concept of time. Citing TS.Eliot, Italian philosopher Giacomo Leopardi and scenes from Ridley Scott’s Science Fiction film classic Blade Runner, Holloway explored human experience of time with and without faith. He spoke of “liminal moments”, “extreme experiences of revelation or exposure”, “points of collision at the world’s end or the end of time” and the capacity of music to encompass and transcend those experiences.

As an introduction to Messiaen’s Quartet For The End Of Time (1940) which followed, it was a wonderful expression of the power of music to suspend time, bringing the listener “into the eternal now”. Inspired by the Book of Revelation and written whilst incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp, it is a work born of extreme circumstances, both in terms of its creation and first performance. The experience of hearing it performed by the Hebrides Ensemble, regardless of faith, was utterly transcendent.

Performed by the Ensemble in one of their first concerts 21 years ago, it is easy to see why the group continue to revisit this extraordinary work. It feels very apt given the current state of the world for audiences to rediscover it through the immediacy and intimacy of live performance; the experience of time suspended – not as a scientific concept but as a spiritual one. For Messiaen, Quartet For The End Of Time was an act of Faith which continues to endure. Even in the absence of Faith it is impossible not to be deeply moved by it, held in the experience of listening and collective remembrance of what it is to be human.

The clarity and intensity of this work, particularly in the solo movements, were superbly realised in this performance. In the third movement Yann Ghiro’s solo clarinet was pure and ascendant, achieving a sublime quality of sound. This was equalled by William Conway (solo cello) in the melancholic reverence of the fifth movement and by David Alberman (Solo Violin) in the exquisite eighth movement, containing the soul and redemption at its core.

After playing like that there is only silence! The overwhelming and timeless nature of Messiaen’s work clearly affected both the performers and the entire audience.

This is the kind of programming needed now more than ever and it is chamber ensembles like the Hebrides Ensemble and the Scottish Ensemble who are national leaders in their field; in performance, education and the commissioning of new work. Currently working on the establishment of a Hebrides Academy with the intent of working with young professionals, instrumentalists and vocalists, and maintaining their commitment to the creation of new work, the Hebrides Ensemble continue to embody excellence and actively inspire our next generation of musicians.

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© Georgina Coburn, 2012

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• Hebrides Ensemble