Valentin VILLARD (b. 1985)
Mass for 6 voices, Op 44 (2008-2011) [34:17]
Frank MARTIN (1890-1974)
Mass for double choir (1922/1926) [24:32]
Académie Vocale de Suisse Romande/Renaud Bouvier, Dominique Tille
rec. 12-15 July 2021, Eglise de la Roche, La Roche, Switzerland.
CLAVES 50-3003 [59:02]
Swiss composer Frank Martin released his Mass for Double Choir for publication in 1963 (the booklet to this disc gives the year erroneously as 1969), after having kept the work hidden for over 40 years, frightened both of opening up his innermost religious feelings to public scrutiny, and of tempting comparison with his acknowledged musical hero, J S Bach. But he need not have worried; in many respects, this has become his most famous work and the one which has earned him the highest respect amongst audiences and performers alike. It has, in short, become established as one of the truly great a cappella works of the 20th century.
In the repertory of most major choirs around the world, it has also built up a most impressive catalogue of recorded versions. By my reckoning, there are currently around two dozen recordings in the catalogues, and there are countless others which have been discontinued. Supreme amongst these is the Hyperion recording of Westminster Cathedral Choir under James O’Donnell released in 1998, but almost every other one has much to recommend, and few listeners would be disappointed with any other of the currently available recordings. This latest, from the Académie Vocale de Suisse Romande, is certainly highly recommendable. These 24 voices make a rich, warm sound, and, apart from a little shaky pitching in the “Benedictus” and a tendency to grasp at the highest notes, match fervour with clarity. Whichever of the two named conductors is directing this performance (I cannot find that information in the booklet), they show a fine level of control over the choir, and draw some impressively balanced and blended singing from them. Tempi are a little too fluid and elastic for my taste, and dynamics often lack subtlety, but as a display of excellent singing and as a committed performance of this fabulous work, it can hold its head up in the very best of company.
A perennial problem with those committing the Martin Mass to disc has been the choice of suitable music with which to pair it. It was the only unaccompanied choral work Martin ever wrote, and his other choral works are generally too expansive and overshadow the essentially intimate nature of the Mass. O’Donnell pairs it with the Pizzetti Messa di Requiem (which is also the pairing on a Proprius recording of the Swedish Mikaeli Chamber Choir), but other pairings vary between contemporaneous works (Leighton – King’s College London Choir on Delphian), Kodály (Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks – BR Klassik), Messiaen (Netherlands Chamber Choir - Alpha), Britten (Stockholm Cathedral Choir - Proprius), and a mixed bag of shorter instrumental or choral pieces. As a coherent programme, none of these really makes much sense, but in paring the Martin Mass with a six-part unaccompanied Mass by another Swiss composer, Akadémie Vocale de Suisse Romande, seems to have served up an absolute trump. The two works are ideally complementary, very different in many respects, but comfortably inhabiting much of the same stylistic world, which makes them unusually well-suited bedfellows.
Valentin Villard – whose name appears amongst the tenors of the Akadémie Vocale de Suisse Romande – is, like Martin, a native of the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Not only does he share Swiss ancestry with Martin but also spent time working in the Netherlands. His output includes electronic music, but is dominated by choral pieces, several of which have appeared on disc. The Mass, however, stands out as something quite exceptional. Having little of the emotional intensity and profound intimacy of the Martin work, Villard’s is more extrovert and celebratory. A swirling other-worldliness envelopes the opening of the “Credo”, which adds an extra-dimension and depth to the work, and much of the choral writing has an almost orchestral feel to it. Presumably the conductor of this is not the same conductor who led the Martin, and the sound the choir makes is dramatically different. Gone is the smooth blend and polished tone, to be replaced by a sharper edge, a more assertive tone and, at times, rather less sense of focus on a comfortable choral sound. There are six soloists drawn from the choir, but at times it feels as if these are additional voices, taking on a very different vocal hue. All of this adds up to a rich and varied musical texture which serves to make this a most rewarding work. Whether or not Villard’s Mass will, in the words of the booklet note, follow in the footsteps of Martin’s Mass in becoming a choral classic, remains to be seen, but in introducing this work to us, the Akadémie Vocal de Suisse Romande have done the musical world a huge favour. It is, in short, a very valuable addition to the choral repertory.
Marc Rochester
