By Nestor CASTIGLIONE

On a rainy morning in January 1941, four musicians readied their ragged instruments before an outdoor audience of 400. As they prepared to sound the first notes of the piece they were about to perform, they could hardly know at the time that this premiere would be a historic one in the annals of 20th century music, nor would they know that over 70 years later musicians and audiences would return to the piece time and again for its revelations of beauty under duress, the endurance of strength through times of terror. At that moment in those decrepit circumstances, their only concern was to make it through the piece – and perhaps live to see another day.

Today the horror that once occurred on the site of the premiere, the Nazi Stalag VIII-A prisoner-of-war camp, has been long banished. But the music born there remains.

Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” remains one of the composer’s most beloved not only for its beauty and originality, its allusions to Christian Scripture, but also for its genesis: how the composer made friends with a sympathetic guard who provided him with writing utensils and even quiet space, the audience of prisoners that listener to this strangely luminous music raptly, how he and his fellow performers managed to make a break from the camp.

As with all great art it remains with us, a testament to the will of the human spirit to endure even the unendurable.

“One of the things evident in this work’s expression is that God and the beauty of His creation are with us, even in such terrible circumstances,” said Jack Lantz, La Cañada Presbyterian Church’s (LCPC) director of Music and Worship Arts. “Messiaen expressed this all in a very creative and powerful way.”

Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” in a performance by the Crescenta Ensemble, will inaugurate the new season of the LCPC’s Ovation Series this Sunday, Sept. 17 at 2 p.m. The series, which is directed by Lantz, has been programming chamber music for local music lovers for 10 years. For him, the Ovation Series serves not only to pay homage to the music Lantz loves, but also as another form of ministry.

“We want to invite people to our church by sharing with them the gifts that God has given us through great music and art,” he said.

Clarinettist James Sullivan, who will be one of the performers of the Messiaen on Sunday, echoed Lantz’s sentiments about the spiritual power of the work. But he was also quick to add that the piece’s appeal is able to transcend the boundaries of belief.

“It’s the sort of masterwork that just lives with you,” he said. “Messiaen expresses so many feelings, from loneliness to ecstasy. All of life’s mysteries seem to be embodied in the score. You don’t need to be a Catholic like Messiaen to appreciate this music’s beauty and meaning.”

The Ovation Series concert of the Messiaen “Quartet for the End of Time” will take place Sunday, Sept. 17 at the LCPC (626 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada) at 2 p.m. A donation of $15 is suggested. To obtain more information, please go online to http://www.lacanadapc.org/event-items/ovations-quartet-for-the-end-of-time or call (818) 790-6708.

  Nestor CASTIGLIONE