Golden Label Nomination – This cd was released several months ago, but ultimately any time is suitable for listening to sacred music, especially since this recording is certainly worth your attention. It concerns two little-known works performed by us with the Vlaams Radiokoor and Brussels Philharmonic.
Both the Stabat Mater and the Requiem have many more famous examples in the repertoire than the Stabat Mater by Francis Poulenc and the Requiem by Alfred Desenclos. The discovery on this cd is therefore all the more fascinating. Hervé Niquet wanted to conclude his Requiem series with these works. As a French conductor, this lies very close to his heart. In the cd notes, he explains that French music feels more "familiar" to him than any other. By virtue of his background and training, it is as it were part of his biotope. No idle words, for the cd proves that he also succeeds in conveying his intense feeling for this music to the singers and musicians.
Francis Poulenc composed the Stabat Mater in 1950 following the death of his friend Christian Bérard. He had actually planned a Requiem, but after visiting the pilgrimage site Rocamadour, he chose the medieval text of the Stabat Mater. The work is characterized by flowing modulations that emotionally express the story of the mother's grief at the death of her son. Moving emotion and refinement are the keywords of this performance by the Vlaams Radiokoor and Brussels Philharmonic. A first highlight is the third section for a cappella choir, O quam tristis. In Quis est homo sounds a challenging cry: who could remain unmoved?! The soloist Marion Tassou – who appears in only three sections – sings a very poignant Vidit suum. The tone is especially pleading and intimate, except in the plea for salvation Inflammatus et accensus which in its intensity almost has the power of the dies irae from a requiem. After all, it is also about the "day of judgment". The section also strongly reminds one of the chilling finale of Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. After a dramatic Paradisi gloria follows a serene Amen. A recording that combines refined tonal colours with appropriate contrast.
The same tone is flawlessly continued in the completely unknown Requiem by Alfred Desenclos. This work does not even appear in the otherwise extensive and highly interesting Chronicle of the Requiem, edited by Pieter Bergé and published in 2011. Alfred Desenclos's Requiem had a long genesis. First mentioned in 1956, it only premiered in 1963, as we learn from the story of the composer's son in the cd booklet. It is above all a comforting piece spread over a soft carpet woven in the mild melancholic tones of the organ. The work actually begins with this beautiful organ sound, recorded in the Jesuit church in Heverlee. Even the Libera me with the dies irae passage is neither violent nor frightening. It is rather incantatory and monotonous. The Radio Choir provides, in the expert and sensitively imploring hands of Niquet, a performance that calls for listening in concentration and peace.
One final plus: the cd has once again been beautifully published by Evil Penguin in hard cardboard with four-language notes (including Dutch).
- WHAT: Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) – Stabat Mater || Alfred Desenclos (1912-1971) - Requiem
- WHO: Vlaams Radiokoor and Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Hervé Niquet - Marion Tassou (soprano) – François Saint-Yves (organ)
- RELEASE: Evil Penguin - EPRC 0032