Wigmore Hall with Renée Fleming

The catastrophe of the Second World War and the consequences of it shaped both works in this powerful lunchtime programme. Renée Fleming, one of the great voices of our time, joins an exceptional line-up of instrumentalists. She takes centre stage in a chamber-scale version of Richard Strauss’s 4 Last Songs, valedictory pieces created under the postwar shadow cast by Nazi Germany’s defeat. The concert’s first half belongs to the Quartet for the End of Time, an apocalyptic work inspired by the Book of Revelation and composed while Messiaen was a prisoner of war.

Renée Fleming – soprano
Inon Barnatan – piano
Alan Gilbert – violin, conductor
Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Nicholas Daniel oboe
Martin Fröst clarinet
Jonathan Swensen cello

Schumann Quartet
Erik Schumann violin
Ken Schumann violin
Matthew McDowell viola
Mark Schumann cello

Olivier Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs