Music in the Grip of War: Messiaen

In the early years of the Second World War, Olivier Messiaen found himself interned in the labour camp Stalag VIII-A. A German officer smuggled pencils and paper to the composer, who set about writing a work to perform alongside three fellow inmates. On a freezing January day in 1941, the eight movements of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time were performed in front of an audience of prisoners.