Fiona Maddocks 

Poulenc: Mass in G major; Sept Chansons; Motets CD review – extreme a cappella

Canada’s Elora Festival Singers rise to the challenge of Poulenc’s fearless chromaticisms
  
  

Elora Festival Singers
Canada's expert Elora Festival Singers. Photograph: PR

Poulenc finished his Mass in G, a missa brevis (with no Credo), in 1937 and dedicated it to his father a mere 20 years after his death. It marked the composer’s partial if confused return to the church, though the joie de vivre of his more hedonistic musical tastes is never far away. Characterised by ethereally high soprano lines, dense harmonies and fearless chromaticisms, the work presents extreme challenges to the a cappella choir. The Elora Festival Singers, one of the few professional church choirs in Canada, cope expertly under the direction of Noel Edison, a key figure there in choral music. Standards are high and, with the Motets for Christmas and Easter, as well as the Sept Chansons, this is well worth the budget price.

 

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