Utwory na płycie:

• Poulenc: Gloria - 1. Gloria in excelsis Deo
• Poulenc: Gloria - 2. Laudamus te
• Poulenc: Gloria - 3. Domine Deus
• Poulenc: Gloria - 4. Domini Fili unigenite
• Poulenc: Gloria - 5. Domine Deus, agnus Dei
• Poulenc: Gloria - 6. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris
• Poulenc: Salve regina
• Poulenc: Quatre motets pour un temps de penitence - #1 Timor et tremor
• Poulenc: Quatre motets pour un temps de penitence - #2 Vinea mea electa
• Poulenc: Quatre motets pour un temps de penitence - #3 Tenebrae factae sunt
• Poulenc: Quatre motets pour un temps de penitence - #4 Tristis est anima mea
• Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel - #1 O magnum mysterium
• Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel - #2 Quem vidistis pastores dicite
• Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel - #3 Videntes stellam
• Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel - #4 Hodie Christus natus est
• Poulenc: Exultate Deo

Gloria and Motets::
Gloria
Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence
Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël
Exultate Deo

Stephen Layton and Polyphony continue to blaze a trail as great interpreters and dazzling performers of a wide range of choral music. Their recent disc of Bruckner’s Mass in E minor and motets was acclaimed as a benchmark recording. For their latest Hyperion disc they turn to some of the most bewitching and unusual, yet well-loved, choral works of the twentieth century. Poulenc’s choral music is a deep expression both of his faith and of his unique musical language. In the various motets, the music responds to the composer’s studies of Bach, Monteverdi, Palestrina and Gabrieli, but is always stylistically progressive. Prominently featured are Poulenc’s distinctive and often ingenious chord progressions. Each motet has its own delightfully etched personality. Poulenc’s Gloria is one of his most enduringly appealing works. In some ways straightforwardly pious, it is also tinged with mischievous irreverence and a sense of rollocking enjoyment. ‘When I wrote this piece’, Poulenc famously recalled, ‘I had in mind those frescoes by Gozzoli where the angels stick out their tongues; and also some serious Benedictine monks I had once seen revelling in a game of football.’ This recording by the Britten Sinfonia, The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, Polyphony and the soprano soloist Susan Gritton under Stephen Layton brings out all these aspects in a classic performance.

GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2008; GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE; GRAMOPHONE CRITICS' CHOICE

'From the very outset of the Gloria it's clear that this is a performance of real distinction … The 38 voices of Polyphony are augmented by 31 from Trinity College, Cambridge, while an unusually hefty contingent of orchestral players makes up the Britten Sinfonia on the disc. What results is not only music-making of immense power and vibrancy - but also an ability, brilliantly directed by Layton, to capture Poulenc's 'half hooligan, half monk' musical persona … Then, in the final chorus of the Gloria, after the boisterous start, we have a moment of profound sanctity and another, crowned with incredible delicacy by Susan Gritton, of mouth-watering enchantment … It is the vivid sense of unfettered joy in the Gloria and the matchless intensity of feeling revealed in the motets that make this such a gloriously distinguished disc' (Gramophone)

'Poulenc's riotously wild, spiky and humorous Gloria is given a marvellously fresh interpretation here by Polyphony and the choir of Trinity College, with Susan Gritton a glorious ethereal presence, floating above the texture like a gossamer-winged angel. But perhaps the real interest in this disc lies in the more unfamiliar motets. Each is an exquisite example of Poulenc's daring choral writing, handled here by Polyphony with the same subtlety and skill they brought to their Bruckner Hyperion disc last year' (The Observer)

'This is a real treat. Polyphony brings its characteristic incisiveness, precision and evenness of tone to Poulenc's unaccompanied Lenten and Christmas motets, Salve regina and Exultate Deo. But it is the account of the Gloria … that makes this a real must-buy. For this, Polyphony is joined by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Stephen Layton presides as director of music, along with the taut playing of the Britten Sinfonia. To cap it all, Susan Gritton sears the heart in her solos, while the church recording gives the whole enterprise a reverent halo' (Daily Telegraph)

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Recording details: April 2007; All Hallows, Gospel Oak, London, United Kingdom; Produced by Adrian Peacock; Engineered by Mike Hatch; Release date: March 2008;