Revolution and destruction in the 20th century

Revolution and destruction in the 20th century

One of the most opulent string octets in musical literature was composed in 1900 by Georges Enescu. The Romanian composer’s work is distinguished by its own unique fusion of Romanian folk song intonations, Orthodox church music, the musical Vienna of the Brahms era, and fin de siècle Paris. Enescu’s synthesis produces string sounds that can be considered visionary in the midst of the dawn of modernity.

Forty years later, humanity stands on the precipice for the second time in the 20th century. The Second World War is raging. Olivier Messiaen’s incomparable masterpiece, the Quartet for the End of Time, was composed in 1940 in a prisoner-of-war camp near Görlitz. It possesses the oppressive authenticity of personal horror and relives the experience of divine creation being in danger of destruction at the hand of mankind. Messiaen pours this message into a timeless, extremely expressive tonal language.