Chamber Series: Quartet for the End of Time

The Quartet for the End of Time is one of the most extraordinary pieces to come out of the 20th century. Written in 1941 while Messiaen was a prisoner of war, it was given its first performance by the composer and three fellow inmates in Stalag VIII, Silesia. Its eight movements reflect many senses of time’s end: religious, inspired by the ‘Book of Revelation’; outside of human time, represented by birdsong; and ending the western sense of musica...