S5 France: Pierre Boulez – Olivier Messiaen

Pierre Boulez – French composer, a dominant figure in postwar classical music, the recipient of numerous awards including the Polar Music Prize (1996): “... His profound musicality, clear music intelligence and unusual farsightedness have enabled him to act in a wider field than the great majority. Thus he has occupied the forefront as composer, interpreter/conductor and eminent theorist, and he has made unique contributions as a debater and source of ideas.”

Olivier Messiaen – French composer, musicologist, organist, pianist and ornithologist, teacher of Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis. A pioneer of serialism and composer with an unusually refined style in terms of tonality and harmony. His important Quartet for the End of Time, composed in 1941 in a prison camp in Silesian Zhořelec, is being performed as part of the 30th anniversary of the composer’s death.