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Poulenc: Figure Humaine - Dijkstra

Poulenc: Figure Humaine - Dijkstra

Channel Classics  CCS SA 31411

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Vocal


Poulenc: Figure Humaine, Mass in G, Un soir de Neige, Sept Chansons

Swedish Radio Choir
Peter Dijkstra (conductor)


To issue a CD of Poulenc's Most major choral work is to make a huge statement, and to take something of a risk. Why does one do it? Are not there already enough recordings? Having Said That, in my case it's simply say necessity. This work is so beautiful, so impressive, and so significant to the canon of twentieth-century choral music, That I can not resist Having a say of my own. That I do believe 12 share Poulenc's Human figure is The Most Beautiful and impressive a cappella choral work That I know. The poet Eluard and composer Poulenc Formed a perfect match. Eluard's poignant and sinister surrealistic texts are very moving, and Their wonderfully expressive language depicts the horrors of the Second World War. It is without doubt a harrowing work, to end with a piece de resistance: the eighth and final movement Freedom.

In The Most Beautiful words, express it the omnipresent urge for liberty. Poulenc's setting is simply wonderful, with a gigantic buildup to the Concluding, ultimate cry of FREEDOM! It is a great joy to perform this sort of music with my Swedish Radio Choir. The set is a very strong group, and Most eager to stretch boundaries icts. The strength of the group is not Merely the sum of individual qualities icts. At the moment thesis When qualities merge into one, the group Develops still further, and the whole has Attains Higher elevation. HOWEVER significant blending of the sound May be, it May not be at the expense of individual color and personality. Choirs are frequently a considerable distance from Recorded, Perhaps to Improve the blend. Often I find the resulting and sound to be remote, and detrimental to the clarity of the text. The technical recording of Channel Classics seeks to ESTABLISH a synthesis, with clarity and directness Combining spatial effect. This is exactly my own approach to choral timbre: the choir must accomplish achieve the greatest unity and blend, aim aussi allow space for individual color. It is at times Such que la listener feels Personally Involved, and the music gains a human appearance. I am Convinced That this is the sound mind in Poulenc HAD When He wrote Human figure.

Peter Dijkstra

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Review by Graham Williams - October 21, 2011

The Swedish Radio Choir has, for many years, had an enviable reputation both for their outstanding vocal flexibility and for the wide-ranging repertoire that they undertake. They are to be found on many recordings directed by their long-standing principal conductor, the highly respected Eric Ericson and since 2007 their current principal conductor Peter Dijkstra. On this second SACD for Channel Classics they perform a programme of four of Poulenc’s most important a cappella works written in the period leading up to and during the Second World War.

The main work on this disc, and the one that provides its title, is the cantata ‘Figure Humaine’ (1943) - widely regarded as one of Poulenc’s finest works. In this complex and fiendishly difficult to perform piece, Poulenc sets eight poems by Paul Éluard (1895-1952) that depict the horrors of the war. In the final poem there is a gradual build up to the final cry of Liberté – an ecstatic moment. The Swedish Radio Choir gives a wonderfully committed performance of this challenging piece with radiant singing and impeccable intonation providing the pure choral tone that Poulenc so desired.

Poulenc’s return to the Roman Catholic faith following the death of a close friend and a visit to Notre Dame de Rocamadour resulted in an outpouring of deeply felt religious choral music of which the ‘Mass in G’ (1937) that opens this disc is an example. This is a sober and somewhat austere setting of five sections of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei). The Swedish Radio Choir’s performance is distinguished by finely graded control of both dynamics and balances. The ethereal solo contributions of soprano Jessica Bäcklund and alto Christiane Höjlund in the ‘Agnus Dei’ deserve special mention.

The other two works on the disc are the ‘Sept Chansons’ (1936) – settings of love poems by both Apollinaire and Éluard, and the powerful ‘Un Soir de Neige’ (1944), the latter juxtaposing the beauty of a winter landscape with images of cold, desolation and death; a reflection of the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.

Channel Classic’s superb DSD recording made in the Musikaliska, Stockholm presents the choir in a spacious acoustic that accommodates the huge dynamic range of the singing without strain. There were, however, a few occasions when some of the words were difficult to identify, something that is not the case in the Swedish Radio Choir’s previous release recorded in a different venue Sandström: Nordic Sounds - Dijkstra . The booklet accompanying this disc contains full texts and translations as well as perceptive notes by Clemens Romijn.

This challenging, but rewarding disc is confidently recommended.

Copyright © 2011 Graham Williams and HRAudio.net

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