Litanies

Jehan Alain was a contemporary of Messiaen and had as great a potential as a composer. Alain produced a wonderful set of compositions before he was killed in action aged 29, just five days before France withdrew from World War II, leaving us to wonder forever what might have been.

Alain wrote about how to play this piece: ‘You must create an impression of passionate incantation. Prayer is not a lament but a devastating tornado, flattening everything is its way. It is also an obsession. You must fill men’s ears with it, and God’s ears too! If you get to the end without feeling exhausted you have neither understood the piece nor played it as I would want it.’