Music in times of war
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Music and war may seem poles apart, but the suffering caused by conflict is sometimes best captured in the music of a great composer. Music in Time of War is the theme of this year's West Cork Chamber Music Festival, which runs from the 26th of June until the 5th of July. And the festival director joins me now. Francis Humphreys, good morning. Good morning to you, Pat. Nice to talk to you. Now, this is a very long-running festival, and you've been in charge of it for its duration. I have indeed, yes, for my sins. 31 years now. Tell me why you chose this particular theme for this year. Ukraine, quite simply. What's happening in Ukraine is, you know, that war is on our borders. We don't, you know, we don't perhaps see it.
But Ireland is full of Ukrainian refugees. So it's, I think it's important to acknowledge that. And to acknowledge, and I've done it by featuring two very fine Ukrainian musicians, two Ukrainian composers, and we've two Ukrainians, young Ukrainians, as part of our Masterclass series. So they're in student quartets who get Masterclasses throughout the festival. So I thought that was a way to... Sure. That's how we opened the festival. You've been very successful over the years, and I'm wondering, how do you persuade sometimes internationally acclaimed musicians to make that journey to West Cork? Yes, it's a long journey for most of them, but they stay. I insist that they stay for at least five days, and I think for many musicians, unpacking and sitting down...
And meeting all their friends. String quartets love it because they normally do concerts without other string quartets. So it's great for them to come here and meet with their colleagues from all over the world. And West Cork, who would turn down an invitation to come to West Cork and play in Bantry House, you know? Now, I'm going to play some snatches of music that you have suggested to us, and we'll play a little first, and then you can tell us the history of that particular piece of music and how it relates to our theme. So, first of all, this is a piece from Prokofiev.
What is the connection between music and war?
Prokofiev
Now that's just a tiny snatch of the piece. When was that composed? He wrote that between 1938 and 1946, so actually right during the war. And I think that last movement to me is saying, thank God it's all over. and let's try and live life again. So it was written with the clouds of war gathering at the beginning, and then the end was in sight at the end. I think the end was gone, but of course, it being Stalin's Russia, things weren't exactly pleasurable for intellectuals and composers and musicians.
Why was 'Music in Time of War' chosen as this year's festival theme?
He gave them a very rough time. Once during the war, he kind of let them do their thing, But once the war was over, things started to get tough again. And Prokofiev there is trying to put a brave face on it. Well, the next piece of music that we're going to play a little of was actually composed by a prisoner of war. Have a listen to this from Messin.
Messin
And that's a little snatch of Messin's End of Time. Tell me about its composition, Francis. It's an extraordinary story because Messiaen was enlisted in 1940 and was captured when, you know, France surrendered quite quickly after the German invasion. And he was trekked off to a prisoner of war camp in Silesia in Poland where the temperature was minus 25 degrees in the winter. When that was performed, its premier was in the prison camp. in January 1941. So at minus 35 degrees. I don't know. To be honest, I don't know how the musicians managed with their fingers because you need your fingers when you're playing a violin or a cello or indeed the clarinet and the piano. The long story is about that extraordinary event.
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