Olivier Messiaen #6 The years of war (1940-1945).
Messiaen is drafted for the army and 1940 is taken prisoner and shipped to Poland. Luckily, among the other prisoners, were fellow musicians. This allowed Messiaen to compose on the greatest classical masterpieces of the twentieth century, ‘Quatuor pour la fin du Temps’. The war was a great source of inspiration for Messiaen when he composed: ‘Chœurs pour une Jeanne d’Arc’, ‘Visions de l’Amen’, ‘Trois petites Liturgies de la présence divine’, ‘Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus’ and his masterful ‘Chant des déportés’. When the war was coming at an end, another tragedy hit: his wife Claire underwent an operation which went very wrong. She lost her memory and spent the rest of her days in sanatoria. In 1959, she passed away.
Playlist:
– Visions de l’Amen, pour deux pianos (1943)
– Trois petites Liturgies de la présence divine, pour chœur de voix de femmes, piano, ondes Martenot et orchestre (part 1) (1944)
