Janine Jansen and Friends

Different cultures and locales are remarkably vivid in these pulsing musical gems. Despite the initial request coming from Benny Goodman, Bartok’s Contrasts owes less to jazz and more to the pungent folk music of Eastern Europe—perhaps the influence of its co-commissioner, Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti. Szymanowski’s virtuoso Mythes draw inspiration from Mediterranean cultures and French impressionist music, while Messiaen expresses his deep faith in a work of timeless beauty composed under trying circumstances while a prisoner of war.