The only connection between Olivier Messiaen and Frank Martin I can think of is that Stockhausen studied with both of them.
Messiaen was a devout Catholic, Martin a staunch Calvinist, and for the sleeve notes to call them the two most important religious composers of the 20th century (Elgar? Stravinsky?) is going a bit far.
Yet Martin's unaccompanied Mass, first performed in 1963, is a compelling, austere piece, gloriously sung here by the RIAS choir from Berlin. And his settings of Ariel's songs from the Tempest are shapely miniatures, just a bit winsome at times. The restraint of both works, though, makes Messiaen's Cinq Rechants seem gloriously unbuttoned, even erotic, one might say.
RIAS Kammerchor, Charlottenstraße 56, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Tickets Telefon: +49.30.20298725 - Mo-Fr 9-18 Uhr, E-Mail: tickets@rias-kammerchor.de, www.rias-kammerchor.de
