and now, a musical interlude

The presidential inauguration is just a week from Tuesday. (I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a President today.) Here's the schedule of events.

Between the inaugurations of Mr Biden and Mr Obama - just when the suspense is most intense - we will be distracted by a musical interlude. The performers caught my professional attention:

Itzhak Perlman (Violin), Yo-Yo Ma (Cello), Gabriela Montero (Piano), Anthony McGill (Clarinet)

There are a few works in the concert repertoire for that particular combination of instruments. The best-known is the Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) by Olivier Messiaen. As it happens, I have even heard this work performed by an ensemble including this clarinetist, Anthony McGill. I thought he was excellent.

But is a mystic work premiered in a prisoner-of-war camp likely to be played at a demotic festive ceremony like a presidential inauguration? And if it were, could its largely still and quiet tones be heard? (There are some audio samples of the Quatuor here, and plenty of full movements on YouTube under either the French or English title.)

Probably not. The previous line on the program schedule gives it away:

Musical Selection, John Williams, composer/arranger

The composer whose best-known work is the score to a film which gave its title to one of Ronald Reagan's more, shall we say elusive, projects. Still, Williams is conservatory-trained and surely knows the Quatuor. Perhaps we can rely on Messiaen to supply a leitmotif or two?