7pm (c.17 mins) – Movt 1 Crystal Liturgy; Movt 2 Angel Announcing End of Time; Movt 3 Abyss of the Birds.

7.30pm (c.12mins) Movt 4 Scherzo & Movt 5 Praise to the Eternity of Jesus

8pm (c.15mins) Movt 6 Dance of Wrath; Movt 7 Tangle of Rainbows

8.30pm (c.6mins) Movt 8 In praise of the immortality of Jesus

8.45pm (c.6mins) Movt 8 In praise of the immortality of Jesus

The choice of performance location takes inspiration from the lines:

A woman drew her long black hair out tight
And fiddled whisper music on those strings
And bats with baby faces in the violet light
Whistled, and beat their wings
And crawled head downward down a blackened wall

 burning  burning  burning  burning
O Lord Thou pluckest me out
O Lord Thou pluckest

 burning

Messiaen’s eight part, highly spiritual work, written for inmates in a German prison in 1940, will be performed by four of the UK’s finest classical musicians against the backdrop of the blackened wall at All Hallows by the Tower church which was damaged by German bombing in World War II, also in 1940.

The Steinway concert piano chosen and hired by the T S Eliot Estate is supplied and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London.