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Poulenc - Gloria & Motets - Classic FM Magazine

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Fast-living Francis Poulenc had a born-again rush of Catholic piety in his later years, which compelled him to write a body of religious choral works.  The best-known of these, the Gloria, is no sombre act of piety, but full of an innocent, sincere joie de vivre.  A thrilling acoustic captures Layton and his forces revelling in Poulenc’s punchy rhythms and pungent harmonies.  Soloist Susan Gritton is sinuous in the Stravinskyian ‘Domine Deus’ and soaring and ecstatic in the ‘Qui sedes’.  The rest of the disc explores the more contemplative, mother-of-pearl shimmer of Poulenc’s unaccompanied motets, and it’s all superbly performed.


Emma Barker

Poulenc - Gloria & Motets
Hyperion Records CDA67623