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The clarinetist Rebecca Rischin has written a captivating book . . . . Her research dispels several long-cherished myths about the 1941 premiere. As Messiaen told the story, he and three friends performed under the most trying circumstances-using dilapidated instruments, including a three-stringed cello-and won the hearts of five thousand hardened soldiers. In fact, the instruments, while inferior, were adequate to the task, and the crowd was more like three hundred. . . . Rischin lovingly brings to life the other musicians Tienne Pasquier, cellist; Henri Akoka, clarinetist; and Jean Le Boulaire, violinist-who played with Messiaen, the pianist at the premiere. -Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 22 March 2004

Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps has acquired such a mythical status that it is good to find someone demythologizing it. . . . This is a splendid book full of human interest stories: the kindly German officer who facilitated the rehearsals and the performance; the strange life of Le Boulaire; the adventures of the characterful Akoka, who survived despite being Jewish and even escaped from the camp with his clarinet. It is all here. Tully Potter, Classic Record Collector, Winter 2003

What emerges is a tale full of warmth and humanity that is, if anything, far more remarkable than the composer's careful selection of anecdotes. By turns moving, astonishing, challenging and funny, it is a story that deserves to be heard. Strongly recommended. -BBC Music Magazine

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Rebecca Rischin is Associate Professor of Music at Ohio University in Athens. Her research for this book was aided by a Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship for study in Paris, awarded in 1993 to only two other American artists and musicians. Rischin is an award-winning clarinetist who performs regularly throughout the United States and Europe.

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