"The clarinetist Rebecca Rischin has written a captivating book. . . . Her research dispels several long-cherished myths about the 1941 premiere. . . . Rischin lovingly brings to life the other musicians—Étienne Pasquier, cellist; Henri Akoka, clarinetist; and Jean Le Boulaire, violinist—who played with Messiaen, the pianist at the premiere.”—Alex Ross, The New Yorker
“This book offers a wealth of new information about the circumstances under which the Quartet was created. Based on original interviews with the performers, witnesses to the premiere, and documents from the prison camp, this first comprehensive history of the Quartet’s composition and premiere held my interest from beginning to end. . . . For the End of Time touches on many things: faith, friendship, creativity, grace in a time of despair, and the uncommon human alliances that wartime engenders.”—Arnold Steinhardt, Chamber Music
“The clarification of the order of composition of the movements is just one of the minor but cumulatively significant ways in which Rischin modifies the widely accepted account of the events at Stalag VIII A. . . . For the End of Time is a thorough and readable piece of investigative journalism that clarifies some important points about the Quartet's genesis.”—Michael Downes, Times Literary Supplement
The premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time on January 15, 1941, has been called one of the great stories of twentieth-century music. Composed while Messiaen (1908–1992) was imprisoned by the Nazis in Stalag VIII A, the work was performed under the most trying of circumstances: the temperature, inferior instruments, and the general conditions of life in a POW camp.
Based on testimonies by the musicians and their families, witnesses to the premiere, former prisoners, and on documents from Stalag VIII A, For the End of Time examines the events that led to the Quartet’s composition, the composer’s interpretive preferences, and the musicians’ problems in execution and how they affected the premiere and subsequent performances. Rebecca Rischin explores the musicians’ life in the prison camp, their relationships with each other and with the German camp officials, and their intriguing fortunes before and after the momentous premiere.
This paperback edition features supplementary texts and information previously unavailable to the author about the Quartet’s premiere, Vichy and the composer, the Paris premiere, a recording featuring Messiaen as performer, and an updated bibliography and discography.
Reviews
"The clarinetist Rebecca Rischin has written a captivating book . . . . Her research dispels several long-cherished myths about the 1941 première. As Messiaen told the story, he and three friends performed under the most trying circumstances—using dilapidated instruments, including a three-stringed cello—and won the hearts of five thousand hardened soldiers. In fact, the instruments, while inferior, were adequate to the task, and the crowd was more like three hundred. . . . Rischin lovingly brings to life the other musicians—Étienne Pasquier, cellist; Henri Akoka, clarinetist; and Jean Le Boulaire, violinist—who played with Messiaen, the pianist at the première."—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 22 March 2004
“The writing and first performance of French composer Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” in a German POW camp in the bitter winter of 1941, is one of the great stories of twentieth century music. Ohio University music professor Rischin has gone to heroic lengths to separate the facts from the legends that have grown up about it. . . . Rischin tracked down the elderly Pasquier and violinist Jean La Boulaire (who lived his postwar life as an actor) and also talked to Messiaen’s widow and Akoka’s surviving family. . . . These interviews show a remarkable picture of life at a desperate time—and of how the German authorities were anxious to show their civilized side to the French. . . . This is a fascinating, and finally believable, account of a remarkable occasion.”—Publishers Weekly
"What emerges is a tale full of warmth and humanity that is, if anything, far more remarkable than the composer's careful selection of anecdotes. By turns moving, astonishing, challenging and funny, it is a story that deserves to be heard. Strongly recommended." —BBC Music Magazine
"In Rebecca Rischin's excellent . . . book. . ., Messiaen's detachment from temporality emerges in high relief when, during World War II, he wrote large parts of his ethereal Quartet for the End of Time while a prisoner of war in a German camp."—David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer, 30 September 2003
"Rischin carefully describes conditions in the camp, how Messiaen was able to compose, the eventual release or escape of the four musicians, and the musical ideas expressed in the quartet's rhythms, tempi, and sonorities. . . . A concise book full of insight into a chamber music classic and its first performers." —Booklist, 15 November 2003
"Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps has acquired such a mythical status that it is good to find someone demythologizing it. . . . This is a splendid book full of human interest stories: the kindly German officer who facilitated the rehearsals and the performance; the strange life of Le Boulaire; the adventures of the characterful Akoka, who survived despite being Jewish and even escaped from the camp with his clarinet. It is all here."—Tully Potter, Classic Record Collector, Winter 2003
"We can make up our own minds about Messiaen's music. But we now have this splendid book which tells so many stories."—Tully Potter, Strad, December 2003
"[Rischin] places [the Quartet for the End of Time] in the overall spectrum of Messiaen's output, which was significant inasmuch as his long life spanned some of the most turbulent years of the twentieth century. . . . The quartet emerges as a surprisingly hopeful work, due not in small part to the astounding optimism of all of the musicians involved. This readable book is full of fresh insights into the world of the enigmatic Messiaen and into how a piece of music can empower individuals to transcend the most dire conditions. . . . Highly recommended. All levels."—Choice 41:10, June 2004
"The clarification of the order of composition of the movements is just one of the minor but cumulatively significant ways in which Rischin modifies the widely accepted account of the events at Stalag VIIIA. . . . For the End of Time . . . is a thorough and readable piece of investigative journalism, which clarifies some important points about the Quartet's genesis."—Michael Downes, Times Literary Supplement, August 6, 2004
"Offers a wealth of new information about the circumstances under which the quartet was created. Based on original interviews with the performers, witnesses to the premiere, and documents from the prison camp, this first comprehensive history of the quartet's composition and premiere held my interest from beginning to end . . . For the End of Time touches on many things: faith, friendship, creativity, grace in a time of despair, and the uncommon human alliances that wartime engenders."—Arnold Steinhardt, Chamber Music
"Rebecca Rischin has written a fascinating book . . . an extremely valuable (and uniquely detailed) record of reminiscences by those who were involved in the first performance of the Quatuor pour la fin du Temps on 15 January 1941."—Nigel Simeone, The Musical Times
"The young Messiaen wrote his first unmistakable masterpiece in a detention camp. . . . The circumstances of its genesis, and the first performance in Stalag VIII A on January 15, 1941, are well known, but they have been much embroidered upon—not least by Messiaen himself. . . . For the End of Time illuminates the occasion with perception, humanity, and grace. As such, it is in the spirit of the work itself."—Patrick J. Smith, The New York Sun
"A fascinating account of the people and events surrounding the composition and premier of the Quatuor pour la fin du Temps. . . . The continuing history of the Quartet is equally incredible to the events preceding the premiere performance. Much of the book chronicles the lives of each musician after the war, in addition to societal reactions and commentaries about the piece. . . . This wonderfully comprehensive book about the monumental chamber work is long overdue."—Allison Baker, The Instrumentalist, June 2004
"Rischin presents with great fluidity and clarity a time line of facts backed up by original war records and data that has come to light since Messiaen's death. . . . How the Quartet for the End of Time was performed at all in the surroundings of a Nazi POW camp is made even more remarkable by the fact that Henri Akoka, the clarinetist for whom the work was written, was Jewish. . . . Rischin draws on the not inconsiderable archive of Hannalore Laurewald which contains photos, documents, and plans of Stalag VIIIA (many of which are reproduced in the book) and to my knowledge never before published. She also manages to track down prisoners who were in the audience at the time of the premiere of Quartet for the End of Time, some of whom recall the event with great passion and tearful recollection."—www.oliviermessiaen.co.uk
"Rebecca Rischin has written a fascinating book, the core of which is a series of interviews with the original performers (or their immediate relatives) who gave the premiere of the Quatuor pour la fin du Temps in Stalag VIII A at Gorlitz in 1941. Cornell University Press has presented this important research in an elegant, well-bound and clearly presented volume, generously illustrated, and very reasonably priced. . . . It's curious that nobody had interviewed the musicians involved before the 1990s, but full marks to Rischin for having the imagination and foresight to do so—she places us greatly in her debt as a result, not least because all the protagonists are now dead. Pasquier, in particular, is an eloquent witness, and his detailed and affectionate interviews with Rischin will be essential reading for anyone writing about the Quatuor in the future. . . . There is much here of the greatest interest to anyone who wants to know more about the genesis and first performance of the work."—Nigel Simeone, The Musical Times, Spring 2004
"There are flashes of insight from the personality of Messiaen himself. Apparently, the dawn light that he witnessed in the camp had a huge influence on his fabulous sense of musical colour. The lack of nourishment in the camp diet also brought colour to his dreams by some strange metabolic magic. His innocent acceptance of life in Stalag VIII A had everything to do with the bedrock of his faith. By contrast, his three musical partners in the performance of this Book of Revelation-based work were by no means deeply religious themselves."—Andrew Green, Classical Music, 31 July 2004
"[For the End of Time]. . .offers a wealth of new information about the circumstances under which the quartet was created. Based on original interviews with the performers, witnesses to the premiere, and documents from the prison camp, this first comprehensive history of the quartet’s composition and premiere held my interest from beginning to end. . . . Many books have been written about Messiaen, but Rischin's also presents portraits of the other three musicians. These are compelling enough to make us wish they had their own full-bodied biographies. . . . For the End of Time touches on many things; faith, friendship, creativity, grace in a time of despair, and the uncommon human alliances that wartime engenders. The book makes for fascinating reading. But since not one sound emanates from this thoroughly researched and gripping written account, do listen to the music first. . . . You will have the distinct feeling of being heaven bound."—Arnold Steinhardt, Chamber Music, June 2004
“Rischin, however, refuses to be satisfied with the tale as it is generally told. Rather than treat the work’s history as preface to theoretical analysis, she takes other scholars to task not only for privileging analysis over compositional and performance history, but also for relying too heavily on Messiaen as sole witness to that history. Rischin’s innovation is to have tracked down as many witnesses as possible.”—Leslie Sprout, Notes, December 2004
“Rebecca Rischin’s recent history of the Quartet for the End of Time—a work for violin, cello, piano, and clarinet famously composed and premiered at a German prisoner-of-war camp in January 1941 before an audience of fellow prisoners—convey a much more vivid sense of Messiaen’s private side. . . . The story of the creation and premiere of his Quartet for the End of Time at Stalag VIIIA has recently been well retold and demythologized by Rebecca Rischin; over the years Messiaen had grandly orchestrated the details of the birth of his most famous piece. Several things are now clear: The Quartet was immediately recognized as a classic even by listeners who resisted the sermons on Revelation that Messiaen delivered before each of its eight movements. And it has remained a classic of the chamber music repertory ever since. The conditions of its creation gave the Quartet an economy and focus rare in Messiaen’s oeuvre, as well as a historical poignancy.”—David Schiff, The Nation, 13 February 2006
“Rebecca Rischin’s illuminating look at the participating personalities and historical context of the creation of Olivier Messiaen’s Quatour pour la fin du temps, one of the greatest artistic triumphs of the twentieth century, provides valuable insight into the complex circumstances surrounding this extraordinary premiere and allows us a very special glimpse into the warmth and strength of the human spirit.”—Kent Nagano, Music Director and Principal Conductor, Deutsches Symphonie Orchestra, Berlin, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Opera
“Messiaen's Quartet was given the most unusual and moving premiere of any in the twentieth century. The exaggerations which followed have distorted the event, and in some ways overshadowed the art. Rebecca Rischin has set all that straight, restored the truth of the occasion, and reasserted the power of this stunning music. It turns out the cello actually had four strings, Stalag VIII A was no death camp, and the work's enduring mythology was also composed by Messiaen. This fascinating new book shows how, and why, this came to pass.”—Charles Barber, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
“Rebecca Rischin’s book is an interesting narration of the origin of the Quartet for the End of Time that goes into detail about the tragic and conflicting circumstances surrounding its creation and first performance. I do not know of any other book with such specific information about this period in Messiaen’s life.”—Roberto Sierra, Cornell University
