Artist Diary 4

My first full-length recital (indeed, concert) since my year-long sabbatical took place in Dublin and could not have been a pleasanter return to the world of the concert platform. The Royal Irish Academy of Music, together with the National Gallery of Ireland and the French Embassy in Dublin arranged a small Messiaen Festival around the date (15 January, 2001) which was the 60th anniversary of the first performance of one of Messiaen's greatest masterpieces Quartet for the End of Time. For those who do not know the story of this extraordinary work, Messiaen had been taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940 and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Silesia (then a part of Germany, but now a part of Poland). In the camp, he encountered three fellow French musicians, who played clarinet, violin and cello. Initially, there was no piano for himself, so he wrote a little trio for the three of them which is incorporated as an intermezzo movement in the final 8-movement quartet. Eventualy, a piano was found for Messiaen (though with several notes sticking - by the same token the poor cellist only had 3 strings on his instrument). And so, for this never-before-tried combination of instruments (i.e. piano, clarinet, violin and cello), Messiaen composed his Quartet, which was performed in numbing cold to an audience of no fewer than 5,000 prisoners of war. The work is so great, probably because it had to be, in that, although Messiaen was repatriated to France a few months after its first performance he couldn't have known that at the time and indeed, as he and all the other prisoners were suffering terribly from cold and malnutrition, there was a real possibility that the end had come for all of them. Messiaen was later to say, I'm sure bearing this in mind, that never before or afterwards was he listened to with greater attention or understanding.

So, duly, on the 15th of January, 2001, four members of the faculty of the Royal Irish Academy of Music performed this wonderfully moving piece. The Festival also included many other performances by members of the faculty, an organ recital by Naji Hakim who is Messiaen's successor at the Trinité Church in Paris, and an opening recital by me in which I played piano music by Messiaen from throughout his composing career beginning with two of the astonishing eight preludes which he wrote aged only twenty and which are some of his loveliest pieces. What, as I said earlier, made this whole occasion so pleasant for me is that I was asked the day after my recital to do Master Classes with students of the Academy (indeed, with 8 students, each of whom had prepared one of the Messiaen preludes), and then I was asked to stay on as guest of honour throughout the entire Festival so that at any time, people attending the Festival, students, teachers, or members of the audience could come up and talk to someone who had known Messiaen well and studied with him. This is so much in contrast with what can be the normal life of a solo pianist, often very lonely, with meals alone after the end of the concert and nobody at all whilst the adrenaline is still flowing to (using the American expression) 'hang out with'. Dublin could not have been more unlike that, there were dinners late into the night and, as everybody know, the Irish love to talk! Also, having been, for most of my professional life, involved in teaching and educational projects to varying extents, it was wonderful to be doing Master Classes on exactly the music one was playing and talking about. Indeed, as I get older, teaching becomes an almost equal creative imperative as the playing - I think, as Messiaen, my teacher himself found out, there comes a point when one is so secure in one's own métier and proud of it, that one has a positive urge to pass it on - it may be simply to do with age. I am very much aware that I have known and studied with many great composers in my life - I am thinking especially of Tippett, Messiaen, Lutoslawski and Takemitsu, all of whom, sadly, died, during the 90's - and from them I learned so many things which can't be written down, but have to be transmitted from person to person (as they were transmitted to me).

I rather suspect that, in the next few years, a lot of what I do will be projects like this one in Dublin, rather than the one-off concerts which are generally the lot of the concert artist.

It has been a pleasure talking to you all through this medium. If you happen to find yourself at a concert or recital in the future why not come and have a quick word?