Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) by the French composer Olivier Messiaen was composed in a prisoner-of-war camp, making its apocalyptic title all the more fitting. With only four instruments available to him – a clarinet, a piano, a violin and a three-stringed cello – Messiaen created a profoundly moving piece of chamber music: full of humanity, tragedy and divine praise, performed here by leading musicians from our orchestra.

Despite the harsh conditions, Messiaen composed one of the greatest masterpieces of twentieth-century music. Its first performance took place in the freezing winter of January 1941. With extended tempi, irregular rhythms and sounds evoking birdsong, he created a world of poignant beauty, fragile contrast and intense compassion. Some five thousand prisoners of war are said to have attended. Even wounded prisoners braved the bitter cold of the barracks, some brought in on stretchers. “Never,” Messiaen later said, “had I been listened to with so much attention and understanding.”