The End of Time

13 October 2011

What is it that makes Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time so remarkable? “Every time I perform Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time”, explains clarinettist David Griffiths from Ensemble Liaison, “I feel like I am taking a special journey with my closest friends, experiencing together the multitudes of emotions, the raw power, exquisite beauty and at times, playfulness of this incredible work. A journey which always leaves me physically and emotionally exhausted.” 

Described as “the most ethereally beautiful music of the twentieth century” by New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time was written while the composer was in a German prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War. Only 31 years of age when France entered the war against Germany, Messiaen was captured by the German army in June 1940, and imprisoned in Görlitz, on the Polish-German border of Silesia.

Messiaen was a devout Catholic whose works often referenced the Bible. The Quartet is based on Revelation 10:1-7, and an inscription in the score reads, “In homage to the Angel of the Apocalypse, who lifts his hand toward heaven, saying, ‘There shall be time no longer’”. The ‘end of time’ does not just allude to the Apocalypse, however. By 1941, Messiaen was no longer interested in the beating of time (particularly after the war) and came to develop a new musical language.

The Quartet was written for the musicians Messiaen found among his fellow inmates: clarinettist Henri Akoka, an Algerian-born Jew with a great sense of humour who later escaped from the Germans by jumping off a fast-moving train with his clarinet under his arm; violinist Jean Le Boulaire, who seemed a sullen and unhappy character; and the gentle Étienne Pasquier, who might have had a major solo cello career if he’d wanted. The instruments were far from ideal: the cello had only three strings while the piano (played by Messiaen himself) was an upright with keys that stuck. The premiere was performed on a bitterly cold night in January 1941 to an audience of hundreds, consisting of the prisoners and guards of Stalag VIII-A . Messiaen later commented, “Never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension”.

However, Messiaen wouldn’t have been able to produce this work without assistance from a particular German guard, Karl-Albert Brüll. A music-lover who spoke fluent French (his mother was Belgian), Brüll was excited to assist such a significant composer, and provided Messiaen with pencils, erasers and music paper. He arranged for the composer to work in an empty barrack undisturbed; a guard was stationed at the door to turn away intruders. After the work’s premiere, Brüll arranged for Messiaen’s swift return to France, after forging papers with a stamp made from a potato. Soon after his repatriation, Messiaen was appointed to the Paris Conservatoire, where he began his teaching career in earnest.

Ensemble Liaison and Wilma Smith will be performing Quartet for the End of Time in 10 centres around New Zealand from 24 October – 6 November. Click here for details of when they will be performing near you and how to buy tickets.