To a certain extent,
this release is the choral equivalent
of several earlier discs of French organ
music from Lammas. It explores some
little-known aspects of mostly 20th
century French sacred music. All choral
works here are for treble or female
voices, with the exception of In
Paradisum from Duruflé’s
beautiful Requiem Op.9
in which the girls receive support from
a select group of gentlemen.
Jean Langlais has the
lion’s share, since he is represented
by his Missa in Simplicitate
from 1953 and five motets (composed
between 1932 and 1942) as well as by
a movement from his Triptyque
for organ, composed in 1956 and dedicated
to Duruflé. Missa in Simplicitate
is, appropriately enough, fairly straightforward
but, by no means, as simple as its title
might suggest. Langlais was a supreme
craftsman and artist who always managed
to be his own self in whatever medium
he chose to compose. So, his Mass has
its tricky bits, but is on the whole
fairly direct in idiom and expression,
the music being often modally inflected,
but not without harmonic surprises either.
The Five Motets, written
at various periods between 1932 and
1942, are equally straightforward, since
they were all composed for two equal
voices and organ or harmonium, and designed
so as to be sung by less experienced
parish choirs. As already mentioned,
Mélodie is the
first movement of Langlais’s Triptyque
dedicated to Duruflé, and a short
piece that perfectly fits within the
context of this release En Prière.
Jehan Alain’s tragic
and untimely death in 1940 was one of
the great losses for French music,
for he was a prodigiously gifted and
personal composer whose extant output
is much more than merely promising.
Some of his organ works, such as Litanies,
Trois Danses and Deux
Danses à Agni Yavishta,
are now organ classics, although they
may not still be heard and recorded
as often as they undoubtedly deserve.
His choral music may be less familiar,
so that the present performances of
O Quam Suavis Est (no
date given) and of the Ave Maria
written in memory of his young sister
Marie-Odile who died in a mountain accident
at a quite early age, are most welcome
additions to his discography.
Duruflé is represented
by his short Fugue sur le thème
du Carillon des heures de la Cathédrale
de Soissons ("a long title
for a short piece", as Rubbra once
wrote to me when asked about his A
Tribute Op.56, originally titled
Introduction and Danza alla Fuga),
an occasional piece, but superbly crafted
and brilliantly effective; and two excerpts
from the Requiem, viz. the deeply moving
Pie Jesu with its cello obbligato
and the concluding In Paradisum.
Fauré is present
too with two different and equally fine
settings of Ave Maria as well
as a rarity, En Prière,
which gives this collection its collective
title. Caplet’s Sanctus and Benedictus
are in fact two sections from his beautifully
moving Messe à trois voix
"des petits de Saint-Eustache-la-Forêt"
(1919/20), a missa brevis in
all but the name, i.e. without the Credo
but ending with a setting of O Salutaris
Hostia. (A complete recording of
Messe à trois voix
is available on Accord 465 813-2, a
very fine collection of vocal works
by the much underrated André
Caplet well worth seeking.)
All choral items receive
beautifully poised readings, and are
all well recorded; and this release,
as a whole, is one of the finest I have
heard from this label so far. A bit
short in terms of total playing time
(could Langlais’ Triptyque
not have been included here for good
measure, although the other movements
probably do not fit with this release’s
title); but this is really not enough
to deter anyone from enjoying the superb
singing on display here.
Hubert Culot
