Olivier Messiaen was born 98 years ago, on December 10, 1908.
The Quartet for the End of Time was written after Messiaen, then a French soldier, was captured and incarcerated in a German prisoner-of-war camp, and first performed by the composer and three fellow inmates in the unheated barracks of Stalag VIIIA on January 15, 1941, before an audience of 300 prisoners and their German guards.

Clarinette : Barnaby Robson
Violon : James Clark
Violoncelle : David Cohen
Piano : Matthew Schellhorn