Customer Reviews

Poulenc: Gloria; Motets

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I cannot fathom why this recording remains an import. It has already attained the status of a classic in the Poulenc discography and for audiophiles it is indispensable. When I read the ecstatic reviews in Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine several months ago I was a bit skeptical, despite my enormous respect for Stephen Layton and Polyphony. For the a cappella pieces (the Lenten and Christmas motets), no problem--you would expect Polyphony to nail the austere style and diaphanous textures. But what about the panoramic and quasi-operatic scope of the "Gloria"? That seemed a stretch. For this recording, however, Polyphony enlisted the resources of the Trinity College choir, the Britten Sinfonia, and the estimable soprano Susan Gritton. And the results, indeed, are breathtaking. This truly is one of the most heartstoppingly beautiful, and vivid, recordings of Poulenc, of choral music, and of Susan Gritton's ineffably suave voice. Essential.

There's little I can add to the excellent reviews for this disc, other than to explain why I believe it works. Poulenc's music requires good taste, or else its quirky shifts between traditional restraint and mild provacation can make it seem junky, witness the various subpar performances of his works on YouTube. In the "Gloria," Maestro Layton's choir (two combined groups) and orchestra give heat and weight when needed, but more important, they clearly understand when to back off. They're punchy in one passage that Poulenc admitted was partly inspired by seeing a group of monks play an impromptu game of soccer, but then utterly gentle in the final passage that feels to me like the shepherds quietly paying their respects to the Holy Family. Soprano Gusan Gritton shades her three solos resourcefully, by turns slightly despairing (3rd movement), coolly reticent (5th), and maternally peaceful (6th).

The a-cappella works sung by Layton's own vocal ensemble Polyphony similarly leave nothing to be desired, though I'd have enjoyed hearing the gentlemen's voices on the "Lauds to St. Anthony," the underrated counterpart to the "Four Little Prayers of St. Francis" that would have kept the program confined to Latin texts (the FLPs are in French). Any chance of a follow-up, Hyperion?