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Track(s) taken from CDA67623

Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence

composer
July 1938 to January 1939
author of text
Nos 2-4: Matins Responsories for Good Friday (No 2), Holy Saturday (No 3), Maundy Thursday (No 4)

Polyphony, Stephen Layton (conductor)
Recording details: April 2007
All Hallows, Gospel Oak, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by Mike Hatch
Release date: March 2008
Total duration: 14 minutes 4 seconds

Cover artwork: The Closed Eyes (1890) by Odilon Redon (1840-1916)
Musée d'Orsay, Paris / Lauros / Giraudon / Bridgeman Images
 

Other recordings available for download

Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell (conductor)
The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, Stephen Layton (conductor) NEW
The Cambridge Singers, John Rutter (conductor)

Reviews

‘From the very outset of the Gloria it's clear that this is a performance of real distinction … the 38 voices of Polyphony are augmented by 31 from Trinity College, Cambridge, while an unusually hefty contingent of orchestral players makes up the Britten Sinfonia on the disc. What results is not only music-making of immense power and vibrancy—but also an ability, brilliantly directed by Layton, to capture Poulenc's 'half hooligan, half monk' musical persona … then, in the final chorus of the Gloria, after the boisterous start, we have a moment of profound sanctity and another, crowned with incredible delicacy by Susan Gritton, of mouth-watering enchantment … it is the vivid sense of unfettered joy in the Gloria and the matchless intensity of feeling revealed in the motets that make this such a gloriously distinguished disc … the performers here leap out of the speakers with this unashamedly ebullient account of Poulenc's Gloria’ (Gramophone)

‘Stephen Layton's tight control of his forces, both choral and orchestral, lends impeccable ensemble and heart-thumping excitement—has the opening tutti ever had such punch? Soprano Susan Gritton is superb, too, in her committed, soaring performances. The combined choirs of Trinity College, Cambridge and pro group Polyphony are astounding as a virtuoso choral unit … the motets on Layton's recording are a masterclass in choral singing’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Poulenc's riotously wild, spiky and humorous Gloria is given a marvellously fresh interpretation here by Polyphony and the choir of Trinity College, with Susan Gritton a glorious ethereal presence, floating above the texture like a gossamer-winged angel. But perhaps the real interest in this disc lies in the more unfamiliar motets. Each is an exquisite example of Poulenc's daring choral writing, handled here by Polyphony with the same subtlety and skill they brought to their Bruckner Hyperion disc last year’ (The Observer)

‘This is a real treat. Polyphony brings its characteristic incisiveness, precision and evenness of tone to Poulenc's unaccompanied Lenten and Christmas motets, Salve regina and Exultate Deo. But it is the account of the Gloria … that makes this a real must-buy. For this, Polyphony is joined by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Stephen Layton presides as director of music, along with the taut playing of the Britten Sinfonia. To cap it all, Susan Gritton sears the heart in her solos, while the church recording gives the whole enterprise a reverent halo’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘If there's a recording out there that does more to honor Poulenc's intentions in his spiky, delightfully off-centred setting of the church's ode to the glory of God, I haven't heard it … Domine Deus and other introspective interludes exude real spiritual intensity, the soprano is terrific, and the choir lets the emotions fly with total commitment. Hyperion catches it all … without question, this heads straight to the head of the Poulenc Gloria class’ (American Record Guide)

‘The Gloria … radiates a kind of blazing intensity second to none. Quite how Stephen Layton gets the singers of his hand-picked choir Polyphony to generate such white heat in a draughty North London chruch on a wet mid-week morning I do not know, but he does … this Gloria is recorded throughout with wonderful vocal and instrumental clarity and definition: precision of ensemble and intonation is absolute, the sound spellbinding—the dynamic range is breathtaking, but the recording has no trouble coping. It's an exhilarating listen; and on top of all that, Layton's chosen soloist is a joy, too. Susan Gritton soars ethereally above the stave in the two 'Domine Deus' movements, her sweetness of tone and so-discreet portamento ideal for Poulenc … the more sombre mood of the four unaccompanied Lenten motets is superbly caught: the effect in, for instance, the wonderful 'Vinea mea electa' is almost heart-rending, a powerful but despairing cry from the heart. There have been various fine versions of the Gloria over the years … I doubt if many of them can hold a candle to this one’ (International Record Review)

‘This beautifully produced disc … the best-known work here is the Gloria, in which Stephen Layton and his choir do not attempt to disguise the work's debt to Stravinsky, and in which Susan Gritton's soaring soprano adds the finishing touches … this collection is all exquisitely done’ (The Guardian)

‘Conductor Stephen Layton's sentient performance is graced by Susan Gritton's ethereal soprano solos and rounded off with some of Poulenc's more solemn a cappella motets’ (The Independent on Sunday)

‘A thrilling acoustic captures Layton and his forces revelling in Poulenc's punchy rhythms and pungent harmonies. Soloist Susan Gritton is … soaring and ecstatic in the 'Qui sedes' … it's all superbly performed’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘Trying to decide where best to start in praising this disc was my most difficult task, as everyone involved sounds truly involved. Stephen Layton is a marvelous conductor; not only are his tempos good and his textures clear, but the Britten Sinfonia plays with real gusto. His vocal group, Polyphony, and the trinity College choir sing not only with an excellent vocal blend but also with emotional involvement … and soprano Susan Gritton … sings with tremendous feeling. This is a truly alive recording … this one can definitely hold its own’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘Poulenc became one of the great sacred choral composers of the twentieth century. Gloria (1959) for mixed choir, soprano and orchestra is an example of his mastery of synthesizing a restrained yet joyful ecstasy with twentieth century spikiness. By reducing the forces in this recording, Stephen Layton reveals their dissonance without mitigating their heartfelt religious spirit. The result is a freshness and clarity that sheds new light on this work. Susan Gritton’s soprano voice … soars above the choral forces in a way that emphasizes the work’s ardor. The recording, made in All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London, is a perfect combination of immediacy and religious resonance that clarifies the musical forces without lessening ambience. This is a significant and groundbreaking recording of this great work’ (Audiophile Audition, USA)

‘It's not that more choirs wouldn't love to perform these works, but for many they are just over the line of difficulty—demanding an extraordinarily solid vocal technique and an ensemble with exceptional sensitivity to expressive details … not surprisingly, Polyphony joins the short list of excellent choirs who've recorded the motets with first-rate performances … energy and spontaneity along with equal vocal virtuosity’ (Classics Today)

‘Layton's recording comes very close to perfection and certainly represents one of the 'must-have' CDs of the year so far’ (Musical Criticism.com)
For the most part Poulenc pursued his compositional career without reference to happenings in the outside world. But the death of his colleague Pierre-Octave Ferroud in a car accident in 1936 and the worsening political situation two years later found echoes in his four penitential motets, written between July 1938 and January 1939: the first circumstance brought him back to the Roman Catholic faith of his childhood, which had been overlaid by the secular, material concerns of the années folles; the second was too serious even for him to ignore, and while composing these motets he wrote to a friend that ‘it is a good feeling to be supported by religious inspiration … it helps me to work as well as to get through these dreadful times’.

In 1921 Poulenc had decided that while the success of tiny pieces like the Mouvements perpétuels for piano and the song cycle Le bestiaire was gratifying, he nonetheless needed some formal teaching in order to make progress towards longer and perhaps more serious works. The teacher he chose, Charles Koechlin, turned out to be ideal. ‘His knowledge was prodigious,’ Poulenc later said, ‘but the most wonderful thing about him was the way he adapted himself to his pupil. He immediately sensed that, like many Latins, I was more of a harmonic than a contrapuntal writer, and so, at the same time as my counterpoint exercises, he made me set Bach chorale melodies in four parts. It was fascinating work and had a decisive influence on me. It’s thanks to this that I acquired the feeling for choral music.’

The surviving exercises he wrote, together with Koechlin’s suggestions and corrections, show the latter as a very open-minded teacher, allowing sharp, grating dissonances as long as they could be expressively validated, and a combination of suavity and abrasiveness was to be a hallmark of Poulenc’s vocal writing during the last twenty-five years of his life.

In each of these Lenten motets, he tends to support the beginning and end of his phrases with a consonant chord, but on the way from one to the other he takes us through some agonizing sounds, as well as some seductive ones. His responses to the Latin words are every bit as sensitive as in the mélodies that were taking on such profundity by the mid-1930s in cycles such as Tel jour telle nuit: witness, in the first motet, ‘Timor et tremor’, the heart-stopping drop in dynamics for the word ‘caligo’ (‘darkness’), and the ‘confounded’, chromatic descent in the soprano line on the final words, ultimately assuaged by a simple, plagal cadence; or the intense contrast in the second motet between the peaceful legato of ‘Vinea mea electa’ (marked ‘excessivement doux’ when it returns) and the bitter violence evoked by the discords on ‘crucifigeres’ and by the twin enunciations of the name ‘Barrabam’, after which the final tonic major chord comes over as harshly ironic. Contrasts of dynamics and texture also mark the last two motets. In ‘Tenebrae factae sunt’, the phrase ‘inclinato capite’ is set to a surprisingly stark, angular line, so that we can almost see the crown of thorns; and in the final motet, ‘Tristis est anima mea’, Christ’s abandonment by the disciples, set in almost operatic fashion, furnishes Poulenc with his ending, the ‘vobis’ of ‘immolari pro vobis’, possibly referring also to us, the audience?

The motets were first sung by their dedicatees, Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois, on Good Friday, 7 April 1939. On Easter Day, Pope Pius XII, speaking urbi et orbi from the balcony of St Peter’s, denounced the violation of international treaties …

from notes by Roger Nichols © 2024

La carrière de compositeur de Poulenc s’est déroulée en grande partie sans référence aux événements du monde extérieur. Mais la mort de son collègue Pierre-Octave Ferroud dans un accident de voiture en 1936 et, deux ans plus tard, la situation politique qui se détériorait trouvent un écho dans ses Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence, écrits entre juillet 1938 et janvier 1939: le premier de ces deux événements le ramena à la foi catholique romaine de son enfance, qui avait été étouffée par les préoccupations profanes et matérielles des «années folles»; le second était trop grave pour l’ignorer, même pour lui, et pendant qu’il composait ces motets, il écrivit à un ami: «C’est doux de se sentir soutenu par une inspiration religieuse … Cela m’aide autant à travailler qu’à traverser cette horrible époque.»

En 1921, malgré le succès encourageant de toutes petites pièces comme les Mouvements perpétuels pour piano et le cycle de mélodies Le bestiaire, Poulenc jugea qu’il avait néanmoins besoin d’un enseignement plus formel afin d’avancer vers des œuvres plus longues et peut-être plus sérieuses. Le professeur qu’il choisit, Charles Koechlin, s’avéra idéal. «Sa science était prodigieuse», dira-t-il plus tard, «mais ce qu’il y avait de plus prodigieux chez lui, c’était son sens de l’adaptation à l’élève. Ayant de suite senti que, comme beaucoup de Latins, j’étais plus harmoniste que contrapuntiste, il me fit, parallèlement aux devoirs de contrepoint, réaliser en quatre parties des thèmes de choral de Bach. Ce travail, qui me passionnait, a eu une influence décisive sur moi. C’est grâce à cela que j’ai acquis le sens de la musique chorale.»

Les exercices écrits par Poulenc qui nous sont parvenus, avec les suggestions et les corrections de Koechlin, montrent que ce dernier était un professeur à l’esprit très ouvert, autorisant des dissonances fortes et discordantes du moment qu’on pouvait en prouver le bien fondé de façon expressive, et un mélange de suavité et de rudesse allait devenir une caractéristique de l’écriture vocale de Poulenc au cours des vingt-cinq dernières années de sa vie.

Dans chacun de ces motets de carême, il a tendance à soutenir le début et la fin de ses phrases avec un accord harmonieux, mais entre les deux il nous fait passer par des sons déchirants, ainsi que par quelques sonorités séduisantes. Ses réponses aux mots latins sont tout aussi sensibles que dans les mélodies si profondes du milieu des années 1930 dans des cycles comme Tel jour telle nuit: par exemple, dans le premier motet, «Timor et tremor», l’incroyable baisse de dynamique pour le mot «caligo» («obscurité») et la descente chromatique «déconcertante» à la ligne de soprano sur les paroles finales, qui s’apaise finalement sur une simple cadence plagale; ou l’intense contraste dans le deuxième motet entre le paisible legato de «Vinea mea electa» (marqué «excessivement doux» lorsqu’il revient) et la féroce violence évoquée par les dissonances sur «crucifigeres» et par les doubles énonciations du nom «Barrabam», après quoi le dernier accord à la tonique majeure donne l’impression d’une ironie sévère. Des contrastes de dynamique et de texture marquent aussi les deux derniers motets. Dans «Tenebrae factae sunt», la phrase «inclinato capite» est chantée sur une ligne angulaire d’une étrange austérité, si bien que l’on peut presque voir la couronne d’épines; et dans le dernier motet, «Tristis est anima mea», l’abandon du Christ par les disciples, mis en musique un peu comme un opéra, fournit à Poulenc son dénouement, le «vobis» d’«immolari pro vobis», faisant peut-être aussi référence à nous, l’auditoire.

Les motets furent chantés pour la première fois par leurs dédicataires, Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois, le Vendredi Saint, 7 avril 1939. Le jour de Pâques, le pape Pie XII, parlant urbi et orbi du balcon de Saint-Pierre, dénonçait la violation des traités internationaux …

extrait des notes rédigées par Roger Nichols © 2024
Français: Marie-Stella Pâris

Francis Poulenc verfolgte seine kompositorische Laufbahn größtenteils ohne Bezug auf die Ereignisse der Außenwelt zu nehmen. Der Tod seines Kollegen Pierre-Octave Ferroud bei einem Autounfall im Jahr 1936 und die sich verschlechternde politische Situation zwei Jahre später jedoch fanden Widerhall in seinen vier Bußmotetten, die zwischen Juli 1938 und Januar 1939 entstanden: der Todesfall brachte ihn zum katholischen Glauben seiner Kindheit zurück, der von den weltlichen, materiellen Sorgen der années folles überlagert worden war, und die allgemeine Lage war selbst für ihn zu ernst, als dass er sie hätte ignorieren können, und während er diese Motetten komponierte, schrieb er einem Freund, dass es „angenehm ist, von religiöser Inspiration unterstützt zu werden … Es hilft mir sowohl bei der Arbeit als auch dabei, diese schrecklichen Zeiten zu überstehen.“

1921 war Poulenc zu dem Schluss gekommen, dass der Erfolg von kleinen Stücken wie den Mouvements perpétuels für Klavier und dem Liederzyklus Le bestiaire zwar erfreulich war, er aber dennoch formalen Unterricht benötigte, um längere und vielleicht ernsthaftere Werke angehen zu können. Der Lehrer, den er wählte, Charles Koechlin, erwies sich als ideal. „Sein Wissen war gewaltig“, bemerkte Poulenc später, „aber das Beste an ihm war die Art und Weise, mit der er sich auf seine Schüler einstellte. Er spürte sofort, dass ich, wie viele Südländer, eher ein Harmoniker als ein Kontrapunktiker war, und er ließ mich parallel zu meinen Kontrapunktübungen Choral-Themen von Bach vierstimmig aussetzen. Das war sowohl faszinierend als auch sehr prägend für mich und hat mir ein Gefühl für Chormusik gegeben.“

Poulencs Aufzeichnungen dieser Übungen, die überliefert sind und Koechlins Vorschläge und Korrekturen enthalten, zeigen diesen als einen sehr aufgeschlossenen Lehrer, der scharfe, knirschende Dissonanzen zuließ, solange sie ausdrucksvoll zur Geltung gebracht werden konnten, und eine Kombination aus Sanftheit und Schärfe sollte in den letzten 25 Jahren seines Lebens ein Markenzeichen von Poulencs Vokalwerk sein.

In den Bußmotetten neigt er jeweils dazu, den Anfang und das Ende seiner Phrasen mit einem konsonanten Akkord zu untermauern, dazwischen jedoch führt er uns durch einige quälende, aber auch verführerische Klänge. Seine Reaktionen auf die lateinischen Texte sind ebenso feinfühlig wie in den Melodien, die Mitte der 1930er Jahre in Zyklen wie Tel jour telle nuit eine derartige Tiefgründigkeit erreichten. So findet in der ersten Motette, „Timor et tremor“, ein atemberaubender Dynamikwechsel bei dem Wort „caligo“ („Dunkelheit“) statt und der „verwirrte“, chromatische Abstieg in der Sopranstimme bei den letzten Worten wird schließlich durch eine schlichte plagale Kadenz abgemildert. Weitere Beispiele sind der starke Kontrast in der zweiten Motette zwischen dem friedlichen Legato von „Vinea mea electa“ (das bei seiner Wiederholung mit „excessivement doux“ bezeichnet ist) und der bitteren Gewalt, die durch die Dissonanzen bei „crucifigeres“ und durch die zweifache Nennung des Namens „Barrabam“ hervorgerufen wird, wonach der abschließende Durakkord in der Grundtonart als harsche Ironie erscheint. Kontraste in Dynamik und Textur kennzeichnen auch die beiden letzten Motetten. In „Tenebrae factae sunt“ wird die Phrase „inclinato capite“ auf eine überraschend strenge, kantige Linie gesetzt, so dass man fast die Dornenkrone sehen kann; und in der letzten, beinahe opernhaft vertonten Motette, „Tristis est anima mea“—Christi Verlassenheit von seinen Jüngern—komponiert Poulenc einen Schluss, in dem sich das „vobis“ von „immolari pro vobis“, vielleicht auch auf uns, das Publikum, bezieht?

Die Motetten wurden erstmals von ihren Widmungsträgern, Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois, am Karfreitag, dem 7  April 1939, gesungen. Am Ostersonntag prangerte Papst Pius XII. in seinem Segen Urbi et Orbi von der Loggia des Petersdoms aus die Verletzung internationaler Verträge an …

aus dem Begleittext von Roger Nichols © 2024
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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