The Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974) came to international attention in the 1940s through his Petite Symphonic Concertante, written for the intriguing combination of solo harp, harpsichord and piano with two string orchestras. The main focus of interest on The Sixteen's new CD of his choral music is, however, of altogether earlier vintage (Collins Classics 14672, 67 minutes: Dial a track code; 1201). Martin worked on his Mass for Double Choir between 1922 and 1926, long before he reached what he regarded as compositional maturity, and he did not allow the work to be heard until the late 1960s. The music, it has to be said, does not have the characteristics of the composer's later style, but it does have an appealing, almost Gregorian purity, which makes it well worth hearing. The Sixteen give an attractive performance under Harry Christophers, and their programme also includes some Shakespeare settings, Songs of Ariel (set in English), and some smaller, stylistically archaic pieces.
Also from Collins comes a new collection of choral music by Charles Ives - the 35 minute long Celestial Country, Easter Carol, Crossing The Bar and four psalm settings (Collins Classics 14792, 68 mins: Dial a track code; 1311). These little known pieces date from the 1890s, when, in his late teens and twenties, the composer held posts as an organist and choirmaster. The music ranges in manner from a conventional sentimentality to a highly charged experimentalism with Ives steering a precarious course between a strange, not always convincing wrong note religiosity and a fully fledged modernism. It wasn't for nothing that he once had to warn a copyist that even the wrong notes are right". The BBC Singers under Stephen Cleobury sing with a well blended middle richness and keep a foot, as it were, in each of the composer's camps, so that his various stylistic excursions can all be conveyed with equally persuasive musical sincerity.
Haydn's best known masses were written at the end of his career, one a year, for the name day of Princess Marie Hermenegild Esterhazy. The last of them was the Harmoniemesse, so called because of the number of wind instruments it uses - Harmonie is the German for wind band. This piece didn't see the light of day until 1802, when the 70 year old composer was an internationally celebrated figure with his London triumphs a full decade behind him. Although the masses were intended for what was essentially a private occasion, Haydn reached well beyond the immediate requirements that were set him. This is clearly indicated in the titles of best known of the masses, the Missa In Tempore Belli (when Austria was dealing with Napoleonic threats) and the Nelson Mass (when Napoleon suffered defeat at the hands of Nelson).
The Harmoniemesse, the last major work Haydn completed, is, however, a comparatively neglected piece. Like the masses which preceded it, it sits rather uneasily in an area of the repertoire serviced by large amateur choral societies, with all the disparities of scale and style they usually bring to music of this vintage. Period instruments would seem the obvious contemporary remedy, but a new recording by the Choeur de Chambre de Namur and La Petite Bande undek Sigiswald Kuijken leaves a number of issues tantalisingly unresolved (DHM 05472 77337 2, 51 mins: Dial a track code; 1421).
On the one hand some of the soloists (soprano Sandra Piau, mezzo soprano Monika Groop, tenor Christoph Pregardien and bass Harry van der Kamp) seem too liberal with their vibrato to sit viably with the less wavering style of choir and orchestra. Yet on the other, when working together, the solo singers blend very well and their vibrato is less pronounced. Their handling of the slow, sustained music of the Et incarnatus, for instance, is quite wonderful. In the same section, the choir's sharp and pungent manner is conceived rigidly in straight lines and leaves the music expressively short changed. How much better they are in the livelier movement of the altogether brighter Et resurrexit.
The performance aims, for and achieves a good degree, of lightness and clarity the period horns, with their incisive but non obliterating blaze are a real boon in this regard. But the stylistic gap between the solo singers and the other performers does draw a lot of attention to itself. There are no such problems in the short fill up, the second of Haydn's Te Deum settings, delivered with nicely sprung, airy, unpressured grace.
