Berkeley Ensemble with Libby Burgess, piano

Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time has assumed near-mythical status since its premiere 85 years ago at a prisoner-of-war camp, performed in freezing midwinter to hundreds of fellow inmates. With the outbreak of World War II Messiaen had been drafted into the French army but was captured in 1940 and sent to the Stalag VIII-A camp near Görlitz. There he found himself imprisoned with three other professional musicians – a violinist, clarinettis...