BACKGROUND TO… Messiaen’s

Quartet for the End of Time

Messiaen, a medic during World War Two, was captured and interred at a German POW camp (known as Stalag VIII-A) in Görlitz in 1940. He wasn’t the only musician there and, allowed access to the simple tools required to write music, wrote a trio for fellow inmates – violinist Jean de Boulaire, cellist Étienne Pasquier and clarinettist Henry Akoka. Then came this work, inspired by a text from the Book of Revelation. Messiaen played piano, the group rehearsing in a camp bathroom until a premiere was allowed in January 1941.