Une messe imaginaire: Bruckner, Martin; Spirito, Jeune choeur symphonique, Nicole Corti; NoMadMusic
Reviewed 7 October 2024
Magical moments as the French choir Spirito joins forces with its youth choir for a programme of Bruckner motes and Frank Martin’s mass
Spirito is a French chamber choir based in Lyon and directed by Nicole Corti. Corti trained as an orchestral conductor under Sergiu Celibidache amongst others, but since working at Notre-Dame-de-Paris in 1993 her focus has been on choral music and sacred music. For this disc on NoMadMusic, Une Messe Imaginaire, Corti pairs Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir (written 1922/26) with a selection of motets by Anton Bruckner, inserted between the movements of the mass. The Bruckner motets are Ave Maria, Vexilla Regis, Os Justi, and Tantum Ergo and for the Bruckner recordings, Spirito was joined by its sister choir, Jeune choeur symphonique.
The combination of the adult and the young voices brings a lovely focus and clarity to the sound of Bruckner’s Ave Maria, the lower voices adding real warmth. Yet when the climax comes, the sound is admirably focused. Corti does not rush things, and I enjoyed that about all her Bruckner performances on the disc, there is time to appreciate things. Next comes Vexilla Regis, a rather lesser known motet, where we can appreciate the balance and sophisticated tone of the choir along with that combination of warm and clarity.
We keep the clear tone when we move to the Frank Martin, recorded just by adults and in a concert hall rather than a sacred space. Here we can enjoy the sense of the individual lines interweaving, with a lovely long-breathed feel to the said lines. Again, speeds are not to fast and the Kyrie unfolds with admirable poise and space. Though the Christe is more vigorous, these same virtues apply and there are some rather touching moments. The opening of the Gloria has a sense of the numinous, something that applied to the Kyrie but comes out stronger here, allied to a firm grasp of rhythm.
We then move back to Bruckner for his motet Os Justi, here rendered with a sense of reverence and warmth. There is space for the quasi-polyphonic passages and the choir is fully equal to the bigness of tone required yet there is never a sense of the performance being overblown romantic, Corti takes a delight in the poised clarity of her singers.
Returning the Martin’s Mass we get the Credo, perhaps a bit deadpan, but there is a lot to get through, yet we can enjoy the sophisticated approach to timbre, colour and texture, along with the care that both choir and conductor shape the music. the faster sections like the ‘Resurrexit’ have a delicacy to them aligned to technical poise.
A final Bruckner motet gives us another relative rarity, his Tantum Ergo, all hushed warmth and expressive commitment.
The disc finishes with the final two movements of Frank Martin’s Mass. The Sanctus continues the virtues found early, and that clarity, precision and warm coalesce into a feeling of the numinous, leading to vibrant climaxes that sometimes feel the choir might occasionally push to hard. The Agnus Dei has a lovely expansiveness, the lines evolving finely, though when Martin’s harmonies get congested they do not quite avoid it sounding muddy. But the end redeems everything.
Given the relative shortness of the disc, it is a great shame that more of Bruckner’s motets were not included and I would have gladly listened to the two groups performing twice as many or more.
Une messe imaginaire
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) – Ave Maria
Anton Bruckner – Vexilla Regis
Anton Bruckner – Os Justi
Anton Bruckner – Tantum Ergo
Frank Martin (1890-1974) – Mass for double choir
Spirito
Jeune Choeur Symphonique
Nicole Corti (conductor)
Recorded at Abbaye de Noirlac (Bruckner) and Auditorium national de Lyon (Martin)
NoMadMusic NMM112 1CD [44:52]
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