The earthy natural beauty of Strauss versus the Catholicism of Messiaen. Here we hear diverse types of music that one does not easily find in a program. It is mainly thanks to the power of sound that everything falls into place. The opening work, Strauss' Deutsche Motette (1913), is not often sung, although it is a masterpiece. For most choirs, the 16-voice fabric (in addition to four solo voices)
… is too high. This motet evokes a vision of the Bavarian Alps, the same Alps that Strauss looked out on from his home. Whereby the Deutsche Motette is the vocal counterpart to Strauss' Alpensinfonie of the same era. Another sound vision is the 19-voice (!) arrangement that German composer Clytus Gottwald made after Messiaen's Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus (originally for cello and piano, taken from Le Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps). Gottwald could have limited himself to (wordless) vocalises. In that case, the arrangement would have resembled the very earliest version of this music (Oraison for six ondes-Martenots). Gottwald, however, chose a text by Messiaen's own hand. He borrowed this hymn to Jesus from Messiaen's Trois Petites Liturgies. (HJ)more
