Olivier Messiaen’s most famous work had sombre beginnings: it was written and first performed in a German prisoner of war camp during World War II
It’s the night of January 15, 1941, and at Stalag VIII – a prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz in Silesia – a few hundred prisoners and a small number of guards are gathering in Barrack 27. It’s freezing cold. There is no heating.
Among the prisoners is a famous composer; also a French soldier. One of the guards, Karl-Albert Brüll, loved music and knew who he was. Brüll was a German patriot with anti-Nazi sympathies and he provided music paper, pencils and solitude for the composer to work. Now they were going to hear what he’d written.
Comments
Log in to join the conversation.