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Track(s) taken from SIGCD197

Figure humaine

composer
author of text

Tenebrae, Nigel Short (conductor)
Recording details: June 2009
St Bartholomew The Great, West Smithfield, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by Andrew Mellor & Alex Foster
Release date: March 2010
Total duration: 19 minutes 23 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

New London Chamber Choir, James Wood (conductor)

Reviews

'The awards jury says … Poulenc's Figure Humaine makes extreme demands on ensemble and intonation, as plenty of commercial recordings can prove. Nigel Short's Tenebrae is astonishing, and instead of being diverted by the musical struggle, you're free to focus on Eluard's texts. The sense of liberation at the end is no less powerfully expressed, and as a showcase for Poulenc's choral writing, I'm finding it hard to imagine this recital being bettered' (BBC Music Magazine)

'Poulenc rediscovered the Roman Catholicism of his childhood when a close friend was killed in a road accident in 1936. A pilgrimage to Rocamadour in the Pyrenees led to his composing the Litanies à la Vierge Noire and other choral works. The masterpiece here is the double-choir Figure Humaine, a wartime setting of poems by Paul Eluard that culminates in a great cry of 'Liberté'; but the other pieces, too, are all marvellous. It's hard to imagine them being done better: Tenebrae's tone, balance and intonation are superb. All but one are unaccompanied—the organist in the Litanies should have been credited' (Classic FM)

Other albums featuring this work

Poulenc: Secular choral music
CDA66798Download only
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