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On 15 January 1941, 350 Prisoners of War were packed into Barrack 27 at Stalag VIIIA camp in Gorlitz, Germany. The weather was freezing, snow blowing through the door. Four musicians shuffled on stage wearing tattered, ill-fitting suits and clumsy wooden clogs to keep out the cold. This was the extraordinary setting for the world premiere of Messiaen鈥檚 Quartet for the End of Time.

This legendary story is retold every time the work is performed. How, by a twist of fate, these four fine musicians came to be together in the first place. How Henri Akoka, the clarinettist, first played the Abyss of the Birds in a field. How the German guards helped procure a violin for Jean Le Boulaire and a cello for Etinette Pasquier. For Messiaen, they provided manuscript, pencils and an upright, out-of-tune piano.

The extreme conditions meant that this ensemble could not possibly have played in tune, as we hear ensembles do on modern recordings. Yet Messiaen wrote sophisticated, complex harmonies and long passages in unisons and octaves, suggesting a need for perfect intonation. Or does it? Messiaen loved natural harmonics, the quiet "overtones" that musical notes are made from. He built chords from them, hearing them as if they were a vibrant kaleidoscope of colours. Is it too far-fetched to imagine Messiaen writing his Quartet for a bizarre sound-world of distorted tuning?

When Messiaen's violinist, Le Boulaire, described the Quartet as being "beyond instruments", he may have been hinting that Messiaen鈥檚 genius was even more visionary than we know.

This is one of 100 significant musical moments explored by 麻豆社 Radio 3鈥檚 Essential Classics as part of Our Classical Century, a 麻豆社 season celebrating a momentous 100 years in music from 1918 to 2018. Visit bbc.co.uk/ourclassicalcentury to watch and listen to all programmes in the season.

This archive recording features the Amatis Piano Trio and clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe.

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