A Baker’s Dozen of Twentieth-Century Masses
Maurice Durufle, Messe Cum Jubilo. Naxos 8 553196/7, Michel Piquemal Vocal Ensemble and the Orchestre de la Cite, M. Piquemal (with the Requiem and other works). “Like the delicate tracery in a Gothic stained-glass window.”
Herbert Howells, An English Mass. Hyperion CDA66488, the Royal Liverpool Choir, V. Handley (with the Hymnus Paradisi). “Somber, but highly expressive and deeply moving.”
Leos Janacek, Glagolitic Mass. Supraphon SUP 11 1930, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Karel Ancerl. “Volcanic, heaven-storming.”
Zoltan Koday, Missa Brevis. London (Enterprise) 433080-2, Brighton Festival Chorus, Laszlo Heltay (with Pslamus Hungaricus). “A great Mass in miniature.”
George Lloyd, A Symphonic Mass. Albany Records Troy 100, Brighton Festival Chorus and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, G. Lloyd. “A huge concert Mass written in thanksgiving.”
Frank Martin, Mass for Double Choir. Nimbus NI 5197, Christ Church Cathedral Choir, S. Darlington (with Poulenc’s Mass in G). “Private devotional purity.”
Paul Paray, Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc. Mercury Living Presence 432 719-2, Rackham Chorus, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, P. Paray (with Saint-Saens’s Symphony No. 3). “Massive and sweeping.”
Francis Poulenc, Mass in G Major. Telarc CD 80236, Robert Shaw Festival Singers, R. Shaw (with Motets) or Nimbus NI 5197 (with Martin’s Mass). “An Agnus Dei to be sung by angels.”
Edmund Rubbra, Missa in Honorem Sancti Dominici. ASV CDDCA 881, Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. “‘Written,’ said Rubbra, ‘to express my beliefs in music.'”
Carl Riitti, Missa Angelorum. ASV CD DCA 954, BBC Symphony Chorus, Stephen Jackson. “From traditional means, a 1982 Mass of startling originality and beauty.”
Igor Stravinsky, Mass. Deutsche Grammophon 423 251-2, English Bach Festival Orchestra and Chorus, L. Bernstein (with Les Noces). “Neoclassical devotion.”
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Mass in G Minor. Hyperion CDA 66076, Corydon Singers, M. Best (with Howells’s Requiem). “Perhaps the loveliest of all 20th-century English Masses.”
Heitor Villa-Lobos, Missa Sao Sebastiao. Hyperion CD 66638, Corydon Singers, M. Best (with other Villa- Lobos works). “An a capella Brazilian diamond.”