QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME

Penderecki’s 70-year composing career exemplified the arc of Polish musical modernism, and in 2012 The Guardian called him ‘arguably Poland’s greatest living composer’. He died in 2020, leaving behind an influential body of large-scale works, but also a wealth of striking and intellectual chamber music.

Following a performance of two of these works, Jonathan Cross puts Penderecki’s work in context, and provides the story of the extraordinary background to Messiaen’s profoundly affecting chamber work. Both composers were moved to write music by the terrible events they lived through in the twentieth century, and Quartet for the End of Time was created when the composer was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in eastern Germany during the Second World War.

This event replaces our originally planned concert Penderecki: A Retrospective, as unfortunately conductor Zvonimir Hačko is unable to perform due to illness.

Krzysztof Penderecki  Per Slava
Krzysztof Penderecki  Quartet for clarinet & string trio
Olivier Messiaen  Quatuor pour la fin du temps

Jonathan Cross  speaker
Tim Gill  cello
London Sinfonietta

This event is produced by the London Sinfonietta. The work of the London Sinfonietta is supported by Arts Council England and the John Ellerman Foundation