Frank Martin, Bohuslav Martinů
The Secret Mass: (CD)
FormatCDLabelOUR RecordingsGenreComposition
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condition (disc/cover): NM / NM
The title refers to Frank Martin's Mass for Double Choir, begun in 1922 and finished in 1926, which the Swiss composer then kept in a drawer for nearly forty years, calling it a matter between himself and God. When it finally reached the public in the sixties it sounded like nothing else in his catalogue: Gregorian lines, Renaissance spacing and a harmonic warmth that owes as much to Debussy as to the Church. The DR Vokalensemblet under Marcus Creed give it the clarity of a reading by people who have lived with the score.
Martin's Songs of Ariel, drawn from his work on The Tempest, sit next to two pieces by Bohuslav Martinů: the Four Songs of the Virgin Mary and the Romance from the Dandelions, both rooted in Moravian folk texts and both hard to hear without smiling. A 2018 hybrid SACD on OUR Recordings, and a good argument for twentieth-century choral writing that never felt the need to shout.
| Mass For Two Four-Part Choirs | |||
| 1 | Kyrie | 5:09 | |
| 2 | Gloria | 6:08 | |
| 3 | Credo | 6:10 | |
| 4 | Sanctus | 4:50 | |
| 5 | Agnus Dei | 5:00 | |
| Four Songs Of The Virgin Mary | |||
| 6 | The Annunciation | 1:59 | |
| 7 | A Dream | 2:05 | |
| 8 | Our Lady's Breakfast | 3:22 | |
| 9 | The Virgin Mary's Picture | 4:36 | |
| Songs Of Ariel | |||
| 10 | Come Unto These Yellow Sands | 1:34 | |
| 11 | Full Fathom Five | 3:30 | |
| 12 | Before You Can Say "Come And Go" | 4:26 | |
| 13 | You Are Three Men Of Sin | 1:11 | |
| 14 | Where The Bee Sucks, There Suck I | 1:02 | |
| 15 | Romance From The Dandelions | 12:42 | |
- DR Vokalensemblet
- Chorus
- Marcus Creed
- Conductor
