07 July 2019 - Sung Eucharist
Recorded on
Sunday, 7 July 2019
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This was the last Sung Eucharist of the Easter term, and included 20th Century French composer Francis Poulenc’s Messe en sol majeur.
Following the death of a close friend in 1936, Poulenc (1899-1963) rediscovered Roman Catholicism and began to compose with an unbridled spiritual intensity. The juxtaposition in this unaccompanied mass of blazing fortissimos and haunting, beautifully tender passages describes a new-found faith of remarkable fervour.
The mass was finished in August 1937 and was dedicated to the memory of Poulenc’s father, twenty years after his death.
Choral singing comes no better
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer