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Music written and performed during World War II in Europe.
Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time
Written and performed while Olivier Messiaen was a POW during World War II.
Martinu: Memorial to Lidice
A piece written in 1943 to the memory of victims of a Nazi atrocity (see a history here).
Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2
The final movement of this trio (1944) is said to have been inspired by Shostakovich’s horror at stories of Jewish people being forced to dig and then dance on their own graves at Nazi death camps. See commentary by Erik Levi.
Prokofiev: The War Sonatas (Piano Sonatas 6, 7, and 8)
Three piano sonatas composed 1939-1944.
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