Composer: Francis Poulenc
Performer: Susan Gritton, Polyphony, Trinity College Choir Cambridge
Orchestra: Britten Sinfonia
Conductor: Stephen Layton
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA67623
Release: 2008
Size: 223 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Gloria
01. I. Gloria in excelsis Deo
02. II. Laudamus te
03. III. Domine Deus
04. IV. Domini Fili unigenite
05. V. Domine Deus, agnus Dei
06. VI. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris
07. Salve Regina
Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence
08. I. Timor et tremor
09. II. Vinea mea electa
10. III. Tenebrae factae sunt
11. IV. Tristis est anima mea
Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël
12. I. O magnum mysterium
13. II. Quem vidistis pastores dicite
14. III. Videntes stellam
15. IV. Hodie Christus natus est
16. Exultate Deo
Stephen Layton and Polyphony continue to blaze a trail as great interpreters and dazzling performers of a wide range of choral music. Their recent disc of Bruckner’s Mass in E minor and motets was acclaimed as a benchmark recording. For their latest Hyperion disc they turn to some of the most bewitching and unusual, yet well-loved, choral works of the twentieth century.
Poulenc’s choral music is a deep expression both of his faith and of his unique musical language. In the various motets, the music responds to the composer’s studies of Bach, Monteverdi, Palestrina and Gabrieli, but is always stylistically progressive. Prominently featured are Poulenc’s distinctive and often ingenious chord progressions. Each motet has its own delightfully etched personality.
Poulenc’s Gloria is one of his most enduringly appealing works. In some ways straightforwardly pious, it is also tinged with mischievous irreverence and a sense of rollocking enjoyment. ‘When I wrote this piece’, Poulenc famously recalled, ‘I had in mind those frescoes by Gozzoli where the angels stick out their tongues; and also some serious Benedictine monks I had once seen revelling in a game of football.’ This recording by the Britten Sinfonia, The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, Polyphony and the soprano soloist Susan Gritton under Stephen Layton brings out all these aspects in a classic performance.