Martin: Mass for double choir, plus works by Mäntyjärvi, Ticheli and Clausen

COMPOSERS: Martin
LABELS: Chandos
ALBUM TITLE: Eternal Rest
WORKS: Mass for double choir, plus works by Mäntyjärvi, Ticheli and Clausen
PERFORMER: Phoenix Bach Choir; Kansas City Chorale/Charles Bruffy
CATALOGUE NO: CHSA 5045

Martin wrote most of his Mass



in 1922, but added the Agnus



Dei in 1926. He then effectively



withdrew the whole piece for four



decades because he did not want it



to be judged as a work of art. It was,



he said, an act of faith, ‘an affair



between me and God’.



This performance has some stiff



competition, notably the Hyperion



recording by Westminster Cathedral



Choir/James O’Donnell (BBC



Music’s choral recording of the year



in 1998) but it easily holds its own.



Charles Bruffy’s pace is, except in



the Credo, rather more stately than



O’Donnell’s, but is never in the least



ponderous. The Mass is, indeed,



remarkably light in texture for most



of its duration. Martin’s style still



contained influences from German



Romanticism, but these had been



significantly leavened by his wide



studies in Italy and France.



The other works express more



specific, more personal mourning.



Ticheli’s There Will Be Rest was



written for friends whose child had



died, Clausen’s In Pace in memory



of the Cantor of a Floridan Temple.



Mantyjarvi’s Canticum Calamitatis



Maritimae commemorates the 852



passengers who died when a Baltic



ferry sank. All three are moving and



well made.