It is our great good fortune in this community to be able to hear outstanding musicians performing superb music in intimate spaces for a reasonable ticket price. Capital City Concerts delivers all of this; I urge you not to miss this opportunity.

Its first program of the season. "Time after Time," is on Saturday in Montpelier at 7:30 in the Unitarian Church. The program includes Olivier Messiaen's remarkable Quartet for the End of Time featuring longtime Cleveland Orchestra clarinetist Daniel Gilbert joined by three New York City musicians; cellist Edward Arron, pianist Jeewon Park, and violinist Theodore Arm.

Olivier Messiaen's transcendent masterpiece Quartet for the End of Time for clarinet, strings, and piano powerfully touches the far reaches of human experience. Messiaen wrote it while he was a prisoner of war in a Nazi work camp and was the pianist for the premiere which took place in 1941. The work was performed under the most trying of circumstances: frigid temperatures, inferior instruments, and the squalor in the prisoner camp. It has been called "the most open and vulnerable of all Messiaen's compositions, its religious certainties balanced with a palpable sense of longing.

In addition to the Messiaen, two other works will be performed: Montpelier flutist Karen Kevra will be featured in Carl Maria von Weber's Trio for flute, cello, and piano, in which Weber's colorful Romantic imagination runs high. Beethoven takes a distinct look back in time in his Op. 11 "Gassenhauer" Trio for clarinet, cello, piano -a work based on an ancient Viennese street song.

For more information and to charge individual tickets ($15-$25) and season tickets go towww.capitalcityconcerts.org. Tickets may also be purchased (cash or check only) in person at Bear Pond Books, Montpelier, and at the door while tickets last.