Messiaen Anniversary Concert May 19, 2008

Ian Wilson The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time

Gavin Friday narrator
Finghin Collins piano
Elizabeth Cooney violin
Carol McGonnell clarinet
Antoine Lederlin cello

To mark the centenary of Olivier Messiaen's birth, Belfast-born composer Ian Wilson presents the UK premiere of a compelling new companion piece to the Frenchman's transcendent Quartet for the End of Time.

Based on a short story by Nobel prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Marquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World has been written for small ensemble with narration by Dublin-born artist, vocalist and composer Gavin Friday; perhaps best known for his collaboration with Bono on the film In the Name of the Father . He is joined here by a new ensemble featuring three highly talented young Irish artists and the cellist of the Belcea Quartet.

This suitably macabre yet curiously uplifting ensemble piece is presented alongside Messiaen's hauntingly beautiful Quartet for the End of Time , one of the most moving and profound works in the chamber repertoire. Written while Messiaen was interned in the German prison camp Stalag IIIA, it was conceived to 'bring the listener closer to eternity in space, to infinity'. It has since become one of the seminal works of the 20th century.

'Wilson's music uncannily captured the story's strangely winning mix of the macabre and the beautiful'. Irish Times

Official Website: http://www.brightonfestival.org/Event_Details.aspx?eid=2722