If many consider Benoît Mernier (°1964) as the major Belgian composer of the young generation, it is not without arguments. His aesthetics, influenced as well by Philippe Boesmans as by his stay at IRCAM in Paris, reminds slightly of Magnus Lindberg's style, which Mernier admirese sincerely. But above all, he has a style of his own, and that is precisely what a wide an enthusiastic public discovered when Mernier's Mass for mixt choir and great organ, commissioned by the Brussels Cathedral to celebrate Brussels as European City of Culture in 2000, was created by first-rate interpreters. Joined are also the five organ Inventions, his last work, played by himself on the extraordinary new Grenzing-builded instrument of the Cathedral. A second Cypres CD (CYP 4613) shows another face of Mernier's talent with four tremendous concert works.
