Les Six, a group of composers including Francis Poulenc, aimed for a lighter, witty, and clear style to establish a distinct French identity, reacting against the weightier German Romantic tradition.
Composer Biography
Olivier Messiaen, a composer on this album, was organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris for sixty-one years, a position he was appointed to in his early twenties.
Composition History
Claude Debussy, who is featured on this album, planned a series of six sonatas but only completed three, including the cello sonata, before his death from cancer.
Notable Performances
Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time) was first performed before an audience of prisoners-of-war at Görlitz Nazi prison camp in 1941.
Composer Biography
Nadia Boulanger, a composer featured on this album, is primarily remembered as a legendary teacher whose pupils included Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Astor Piazzolla, Quincy Jones, and Philip Glass.
Composition History
Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time) was directly inspired by an excerpt from Chapter 10 of The Revelation of St. John.
Historical Context
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 motivated French composers like Camille Saint-Saëns to revive traditional classical genres, challenging German dominance in these forms.
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