Frank Martin - Choral Works

Frank MARTIN (1890-1974)

Choral Works

Cantate pour le 1er Août

Chansons (1944)

Janeton 

Petite église 

Si Charlotte avait voulu

Songs of Ariel

Come unto these yellow sands 

Full fathom five 

Before you can say 

You are three men of sin 

Where the bee sucks

Chansons (1931)

Sonnet 

Le coucou 

Ode 

Le petit village

Ode à la Musique

Mass for Double Choir

Kyrie eleison 

Gloria 

Credo 

Sanctus 

Benedictus

Agnus Dei

The Sixteen

Harry Christophers

Winner of a Diapason d'Or award

Frank Martin was arguably Switzerland’s greatest composer.  His shimmering Mass for Double Choir, completed in 1926 as ‘an affair between God and himself’, is one of the finest settings of the 20th century, yet it had to wait forty-one years to be shared with others in its first performance. This collection of his choral music also includes his cantata for Switzerland’s National Day and the Ode to Music, along with some charming part-songs. Eclectic and technically superb these pieces display a style that is serenely individual.

______________________________

Frank Martin's most important choral work is his a cappella Mass for Double Choir (1922-1926), though he also composed several short occasional choral pieces, which Harry Christophers and the Sixteen present with the Mass to round out this 2005 release. By arranging the program with less familiar works first, Christophers wants listeners to discover the variety of Martin's vocal writing, and to hear pieces that are seldom performed, let alone performed as well as this superb ensemble delivers them. One may not be terribly impressed, however, with the declamatory Cantate pour 1er Août for choir and organ, which portentously opens the program, or the two sets of Chansons and the Songs of Ariel, which are interesting as examples of Martin's madrigal style, clearly well-crafted but not extraordinary. The Sixteen is superb in its singing and lively in its interpretations, but this music is really best appreciated by Martin specialists. Listeners may well skip ahead to hear the sublime Mass in its entirety -- which is this album's raîson d'être -- then sample the secular pieces afterwards. The Sixteen gives the Mass a phenomenal performance, worthy of the group's reputation and as radiant as the ensemble's glorious 1994 album of John Tavener's choral music, which secured its fame. Coro's sound quality is a little subdued and variable, so some volume adjustments are needed.