35 Ticket £26, £23, £15. Concession £24, £21 | Magfest Explorer £5.
35 - Time Beyond Time: Hebrides Ensemble
June 25, 2026 at 7:00pm. Duration: 80 mins
St Magnus Cathedral, Broad Street, KW15 1DH
HEBRIDES ENSEMBLE
William Conway Director/Cello
Arthur Keegan Coalesce: Quartet for the Start of Life
Olivier Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time
Olivier Messiaen originally wrote this profound and mystical work while interned in a Prisoner of War camp during WWII and it is inspired by the Book of Revelation quickly becoming a landmark work of the 20th century canon. Contemplative and searching, it contains profound and intense meditations alongside vigorous and defiant music all of it hinting at Messiaen’s complex harmonic and rhythmic methods and his obsession with birdsong.
Arthur Keegan’s work was written specially as a reflection on Messiaen’s quartet. Coalesce unfolds imagining the emergence of life from chaos and its development to complex life and humans. It closes gently, with a prayer for humanity’s future. Arthur Keegan’s work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society.