Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps

Leuven has a new concert series! In veelbeLEUVENd, young talent from Leuven will perform classical music. After all, Leuven is bursting with talent and has a rich classical music scene. Through this series, we offer young, enthusiastic musicians the much-needed concert opportunities at the start of their career.

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Olivier Messiaen wrote his Quatuor pour la fin du temps in a POW camp during World War II. The unusual line-up of the piece - violin, cello, clarinet and piano - was prompted by the only four professional musicians in the camp.

All of Messiaen’s fascinations are present: bird song, medieval structural processes, mysticism, etc. It is one of the absolute masterpieces of the 20th century, a miracle created in the freezing cold and premiered in a shed packed with prisoners and guards, who could forget the harsh conditions for a moment. The work has an enormous emotional intensity and spiritual depth.

This concert will be the first time Iola Cornelis (violin), Emiel Vertongen (cello), Martijn Susla (clarinet) and Brecht Valckenaers (piano) play together. They study at four different conservatories in Ghent, Leuven, Basel and Antwerp. Four years ago, at the start of their studies, Martijn and Brecht agreed they wanted to play Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps together one day, and now it is finally happening! The four musicians were brought together by their shared love of this type of music and they hope to convey it to the audience.

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with Brecht Valckenaers (piano), Iola Cornelis (violin), Martijn Susla (clarinet) and Emiel Vertongen (cello)