Olivier Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Daniel Barenboim, DG 1979)
Album
Instrumentation: clarinet, violin, cello and piano. Composed in 1940 while Messiaen was imprisoned in Stalag VIII-A, this transcendent masterpiece arose strictly from the instruments and captive musicians available in the camp. Daniel Barenboim joins violinist Luben Yordanoff, cellist Albert Tétard and clarinetist Claude Desurmont in a definitive recording where the piercing birdsong of the clarinet and the ecstatic, suspended cello cantilena achieve breathtaking spiritual transcendence.