Birthed in a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, Olivier Messiaen’s Book of Revelations-inspired Quartet for the End of Time is weighted with spiritual and corporeal gravitas. In this new recording on Sony, clarinettist Martin Fröst, pianist Lucas Debargue, cellist Torleif Thedéen and violinist Janine Jansen compellingly bring out the drama and subtle shading of Messiaen’s music, if not always the composer’s sense of the infinite.

Fröst’s clarinet has presence in the opening Liturgie de cristal against the string harmonics. There’s a beautiful depth to the sonic texture here, a sense of both distance and clarity to what Messiaen described as “a halo of trills lost very high in the trees” before the piano crash of Vocalise, pour...