BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
FRANCIS POULENC (1899-1963) Gloria
OLIVIER MESSIAEN (1908-1992) L’Ascension
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882-1971) Symphony of Psalms
CD KEY MOMENTS POULENC GLORIA (Track 6) SIXTH MOVEMENT: Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris After a quicker episode in this final movement, the word ‘Amen’ is proclaimed (2:23), unaccompanied, by the solo soprano. She is answered by the unison chorus – who join the orchestra in a sensuous, incenseladen restatement of the words ‘Qui sedes…’ (You sit at the right hand of the Father). Poulenc draws together and sums up the twin musical worlds of sacred and profane.
MESSIAEN L’ASCENSION (Track 8) SECOND MOVEMENT: Alléluias sereins d’une âme qui désire le ciel This movement has grown out of the contrast between the curling woodwind line heard at the start, and the calmer, intertwined solo passages that follow. In the closing paragraph (4:18), the long woodwind line broadens out, while the strings add a complex sonic tapestry of their own – described by Messiaen as ‘trilled chords and sliding harmonic sounds, in a dusting of lights’.
STRAVINSKY SYMPHONY OF PSALMS THIRD MOVEMENT: Psalm 150 (Track 13) For the slow conclusion, Stravinsky sets the words ‘Laudate Eum in cymbalis benesonantibus’ (‘Praise Him on the loud cymbals’) without resorting to anything as mundane as cymbals themselves. A tripletime chorale (6:34) is joined by five trumpets and the divided cellos, while timpani, pianos and harp supply a repeated, quadruple-time bass line (in four beats against the chorus’s three). One of music’s great perorations is also one of the quietest. In a work replete with masterstrokes, perhaps the most remarkable is the chord that ends it. Accompanying the word ‘Dominum’ (Lord), this consists of just two notes: a C, sustained over five octaves, and a single E above. It has already been heard twice before (0:32 and 1:45),each time with commentary from the low strings. Only in the final bars (10:40) do we hear it still and unadorned – in Leonard Bernstein’s words, ‘perhaps the purest single chord ever heard on this earth.
