Advent in Egypt

"The fact that the Quartet was written when Messiaen was a prisoner of war, and written for the only four instruments available in the camp, served merely to heighten the power of the piece, though Messiaen himself stressed that he was not driven by despair at the state of this world, just a simple and genuine longing for the next", Michael Symmons Roberts, "Waiting for God", The Tablet 16/23 December 2006, p. 5 [my emphasis].