The Tūī and the Kahikatea

“The Tūī and the Kahikatea”

Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time and the poetry of Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i

Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i performance poet

Simeon Broom violin

Peter Scholes clarinet

Matthias Balzat violoncello

Stephen de Pledge piano

This event was launched at the climate change awareness festival in Auckland on 27 September 2023. It was followed by a Chamber Music New Zealand tour in 2025. We are thrilled to present again in the ACO series 2026.

The quartet is a famous eight movement piece written by the French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) in a prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. He was a composer/pianist, and in the camp, under trying conditions, there was also a violinist, a clarinetist and a cellist. Their instruments were in poor condition, and although they were suffering in a harsh setting, the camp commander allowed this piece to be performed.
“If I composed this quartet for anything," Messiaen wrote later, "It was to escape from the snow, the war, the captivity, to escape from myself. What I gained most of all from it was that, among three hundred thousand prisoners, I was perhaps the only one who wasn’t a prisoner.”
We too feel trapped, even imprisoned, by an economic system based on over-consumption and growth far beyond the capacity of the Earth’s natural systems. In a sense we have arrived at an "end of time" where we cannot continue to live as we do. This music, at times angry, at times a lament, at times bursting with bird song, leads us to a place of simplicity and transcendent beauty, taking us to the core of our existence and a place of courage in the face of what we see happening in the world. It chirps, dances, sings, weeps and ends in reverence for that which is life sustaining.

Kāhui St David’s has a superb acoustic. Expect wonderful sounds resonating through the fine timber-lined room. It’s a gorgeous space and we love playing there.

Parking - there is free parking on the large site to the left of the building.

Visit aco.co.nz for information about ACO concerts.