Poulenc had shown little interest in choral music early in his career, and it wasn't until 1936, after his return to the Roman Catholic Church, that he began to give his energy to the genre in which he produced some of his most productive, original, and memorable work. This collection of some of his most significant choral music of the 1930s and 1940s, both sacred and secular, features the British choral ensemble Tenebrae, founded and conducted by Nigel Short. Litanies á la Vierge Noir, for women's voices and organ, the ...
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Poulenc had shown little interest in choral music early in his career, and it wasn't until 1936, after his return to the Roman Catholic Church, that he began to give his energy to the genre in which he produced some of his most productive, original, and memorable work. This collection of some of his most significant choral music of the 1930s and 1940s, both sacred and secular, features the British choral ensemble Tenebrae, founded and conducted by Nigel Short. Litanies á la Vierge Noir, for women's voices and organ, the 1936 piece that initiated this creative period, has the character of a gentle supplication, and the singers beautifully capture the reverent piety of the setting but don't always rise to the more robust lyricism of the most impassioned moments. The group has no problems with being too reserved in the Mass in G from 1937; this is a piece in which Poulenc was able express both profound faith and a naughty flouting of the conventions of sacred music, and the singers throw themselves into...
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