Salve regina (1941), FP 110 Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence (1938-9), FP 97 Litanies a la vierge noire (1936, orchestrated 1947), FP 82 Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël (1951-2), FP 152 Un soir de neige (1944), FP 126 Ave verum corpus (1952), FP 154 Mass in G (1937), FP 89
Francis Poulenc is considered one of the greatest melodists of the 20th century but it is his individual and immediately recognisable harmonic language that makes his music so distinctive. Often overlooked in his lifetime and in the years after his death, his sacred music was an expression of his more serious side and, following the death of his close friend, Pierre-Octave Ferroud, a re-awakening of his religious faith. The Sixteen’s new recording centres round the themes of conflict and atonement, reflecting both Poulenc’s intense internal struggles and the turbulence of life in France during the mid-20th century. Recorded at Church of St Alban the Martyr, Holborn, London, 7-10 November 2016
