Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time)

Featuring

Martin Fröst
Lucas Debargue
Janine Jansen
Torleif Thedéen
Olivier Messiaen

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Historical Context

Messiaen was among thousands of French soldiers taken to a makeshift camp near Nancy in May 1940, where he met the clarinettist Henri Akoka and the cellist Étienne Pasquier, who would later perform in the quartet's premiere.

Composition History

The 'Intermède' was the first movement of the Quartet to be written in Stalag VIII A, a Prisoner of War camp, and was rehearsed in September 1940.

Composition History

Olivier Messiaen, the composer, wrote his Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time) while imprisoned in a German Prisoner of War camp during World War II.

Critical Reception

A review of the premiere in the camp newspaper Lumignon noted that the work provoked both fervent enthusiasm and irritation among the prisoner audience, suggesting it was a mark of the work's greatness.

Composition History

A music-loving German guard, Carl-Albert Brüll, provided Messiaen with German manuscript paper and helped secure a piano, enabling him to compose the rest of the Quartet.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du Temps is program music inspired by the language and imagery of the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation), with the composer providing commentary for each movement.