David Krakauer at Joe's Pub

Clarinetist David Krakauer, praised internationally for his astounding ability to play in a myriad of music genres with “prodigious chops” (The New Yorker) and “soulfulness and electrifying showiness” (The New York Times), along with musical pioneer cellist Matt Haimovitz, will present Akoka: The End of Time featuring beat architect Socalled, with violinist Maria Bachmann and pianist Geoffrey Burleson.

Akoka: The End of Time comprises Krakauer’s own composition Akoka, Messiaen’s masterwork Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time), and Socalled’s astonishing coda Meanwhile. This innovative program is centered around Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, which was composed and premiered in a prisoner of war camp during World War II in the midst of tremendous upheaval. Henri Akoka was the Jewish clarinetist in the prison camp who performed the world premiere. This program has a musical focus on Akoka’s story, bringing out the human aspect of this composition....

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Clarinetist David Krakauer, praised internationally for his astounding ability to play in a myriad of music genres with “prodigious chops” (The New Yorker) and “soulfulness and electrifying showiness” (The New York Times), along with musical pioneer cellist Matt Haimovitz, will present Akoka: The End of Time featuring beat architect Socalled, with violinist Maria Bachmann and pianist Geoffrey Burleson.

Akoka: The End of Time comprises Krakauer’s own composition Akoka, Messiaen’s masterwork Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time), and Socalled’s astonishing coda Meanwhile. This innovative program is centered around Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, which was composed and premiered in a prisoner of war camp during World War II in the midst of tremendous upheaval. Henri Akoka was the Jewish clarinetist in the prison camp who performed the world premiere. This program has a musical focus on Akoka’s story, bringing out the human aspect of this composition.

Quartet for the End of Time will be performed in its entirety between two new works – an opening piece by Krakauer called Akoka (a raw improvisation that takes as its point of departure some of the musical gestures of the Messiaen) and a closing piece by Socalled called Meanwhile (sequences and samples of the acoustic recording of the Messiaen combined with sound images that illustrate the violence and turbulence of the piece). Akoka: The End of Time lifts Messiaen’s original work out of the polite context of a chamber music concert and places it in a dramatic setting that drives home the gravity and impact of the work, while bringing it into the 21st century.

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