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Quartet for the End of Time

Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, written and premiered in a Nazi prisoner of war camp during WWII, performed by musicians from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion 'Music for the End of Time' in January this year focused on the Theresienstadt Ghetto of the 1940s. Here many of the finest musical talents of the time were held pawns in an appalling Nazi propaganda exercise, then taken to the concentration camps from which they never returned.

Over the course of a day at the Barbican, to reflect their fate, the number of performers on the Barbican stage dwindled from full orchestra to conclude with just four. Messiaen composed his Quartet for the End of Time for fellow musicians imprisoned with him in 1941 in a Silesian camp, saying of the premiere: ‘never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension’. Outstanding musicians from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama gave a performance described by The Guardian as 'sensationally played'.

Recorded at the Barbican on Sunday 23rd January 2022
Presented by Georgia Mann

Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

Sabine Sergejeva (Violin)
Ben Tarlton (Cello)
Cara Doyle (Clarinet)
Ben Smith (Piano)

59 minutes

Music Played

  • Olivier Messiaen

    Quartet for the End of Time

    Performer: Cara Doyle. Performer: Sabine Sergejeva. Performer: Ben Tarlton. Performer: Ben Smith.
  • Olivier Messiaen

    Concert a quatre, III. Cadenza

    Orchestra: Bastille Opera Orchestra. Conductor: Myung-Whun Chung.
    • Messiaen: Concert a Quatre U. A..
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 3.

Broadcast

  • Sun 6 Mar 2022 20:30