Cosmos Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen has shaped the history of music in the second half of the 20th century in many ways, both as a composer and as a teacher. He composed two of his most important works as a young man, in the face of the horrors of the Second World War: the Quartuor pour la fin du temps (1940/41), completed and first performed in a German prisoner-of-war camp near Görlitz, and Visions de l’Amen (1943) – a large-scale cycle for two pianos, written and premiered in German-occupied Paris.

80 years after the end of the war, the Ruhr Piano Festival is putting both works at the centre of an extensive concert and educational project with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Tamara Stefanovich and other outstanding artists, which is supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. In various concert formats, Messiaen’s work and the associated themes of nature, spirituality and violence will be presented and explored in practical terms in school education projects through joint creative activities. The aim is to make the richness of Messiaen’s music and its cultural and historical contexts tangible for different target groups, and in particular to reach children and young people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged and have no access to extracurricular opportunities for musical education.

Further information:
klavierfestival.de

Dates

June 26 – 29, 2025
Gebläsehalle, Duisburg