Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps

The groundbreaking quartet was filmed at the place of its creation with Isabelle Faust, Jörg Widmann, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

The world premiere of one of the most important chamber music works of the 20th century - the “Quatuor pour la fin du temps” (Quartet for the End of Time) – took place in the Görlitz POW camp VIII A on 15 January 1941 in barrack 27 B with Olivier Messiaen himself at the piano, who had been called up for military service in 1939 and had written the piece during the war and his imprisonment.

With Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Jörg Widmann, four outstanding soloists dedicated themselves to this unique work of music history and performed it together at the “Meetingpoint Music Messiaen”- This was built on the site of the former POW camp just outside of German-Polish town Görlitz/Zgorzelec, exactly where the so-called "theater barrack" once stood. It was here that Messiaen composed the quartet and on January 15, 1941 performed it for the first time in front of fellow prisoners.

The quartet was recorded in 4K HDR under studio conditions.

Olivier Messiaen
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
(Quartet for the end of time)

Isabelle Faust, violin
Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello
Jörg Widmann, clarinet
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Directed by Ute Feudel

A production of Accentus Music in co-production with MDR/Arte.

Screener available in October.

Production Company Accentus Music GmbH
Soloist Isabelle Faust
Soloist Jean-Guihen Queyras
Soloist Jörg Widmann
Soloist Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Composer Olivier Messiaen
Original title of music work Quatuor pour la fin du temps
TV Director Ute Feudel