The Voice of the Beloved
Frank Martin (1890-1974)
Mass for double choir a cappella
Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur (1908-2002)
Le Cantique des cantiques
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
13)
Album information
SACRED CHORAL MASTERWORKS FROM THE NETHERLANDS RADIO CHOIR
The Netherlands Radio Choir and Benjamin Goodson present The Voice of the Beloved, a powerful collection of 20th-century sacred choral works by Frank Martin, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, and Olivier Messiaen. At its heart is Martin’s Mass for Double Choir, a deeply personal expression of faith composed in 1922 and kept private for decades. Its austere beauty and luminous harmonies make it one of the most moving sacred works of the last century. Daniel-Lesur’s Le Cantique des cantiques transforms the Song of Songs into a sensual and spiritual choral tapestry, weaving up to twelve voices into a radiant soundscape. Messiaen’s O sacrum convivium, a brief but transcendent motet, completes the program with shimmering reverence.
Following their acclaimed 2023 release Rheinberger & Mendelssohn: Choral Works, the choir returns with a recording that reveals the sacred not only in worship, but in the raw, expressive power of the human voice.
Released physically on standard CD.
REVIEWS:
Sonograma: “Goodson, who reaffirms his ability to mediate between tradition and modernity, manages to extract from the choir a wide chromatic range and, at the same time, achieve a sonic and spiritual beauty that is difficult to surpass.”
Opus Klassiek: “This British conductor proves himself once again through his passion and precision, feeling equally at home in early, classical, and romantic music as in modern and contemporary works.”
Gramophone: “This is a radiant performance of Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir… The sense of a ‘mass’ of sound here is striking, achieved as much by skill from musicians as from those who have captured them.”
BBC Music Magazine – Four stars: “Pentatone’s recording provides the warmth and space that this music needs. At just over 50 minutes the disc feels on the short side, but the concentrated intensity of the Netherlands Chamber Choir’s singing keeps you absorbed throughout.”
Choir & Organ: “This is professional singing of wonderful, serious choral repertoire at its very best – a superb disc.
