Poulenc - Stabat Mater DVD

Francis Poulenc was a tantalising character, part-monk and part-rascal according to the critic Claude Rostand. As in Stabat mater his music reflects this Janus-like persona, tears never far beneath the surface of even his most jovial offerings. Early on he had renounced the devout Catholicism of his family but rediscovered his faith after the premature death of a close friend, the composer and patron Pierre-Octave Ferroud. It was this event that prompted Poulenc's pilgrimage to the Black Madonna of Rocamadour, who nestles benevolently, high up in the rock face. An... important body of sacred works ensued, not least his Stabat mater, a personal memorial to Ferroud. This is performed here by the combined Cambridge choirs of St John's, Clare and Gonville, and Caius; they're pleasingly mellifluous and disciplined but sound utterly un-French. The work can take it, but this is not the most tender performance. The strange and haunting Motets (Claire and Gonville and Caius Choirs) are dramatically the high point of this concert, while the otherworldly beauty of the ethereal (female-voice) Litanies tugs at the heart-strings. As a visual experience, we get two different locations but there's not a great deal you can do with a bunch of singers. The best things are the close-ups of a fabulous Chagall window (which comes from another church entirely, but who cares?). On the DVD: The remastering of these 1996 recordings has been reasonably well done though disconcertingly, picture and sound aren't always immaculately synchronised. Extra features are a virtual (four-and-a-half minute) visit to Rocamadour which has an appropriate sense of drama, if visually it's a bit crude; and a more substantial (18-minute) documentary on the phenomenon of Black Madonnas which is interesting but you may find the piety cloying, and more editing would have tidied up some of the rough edges that may irritate on repeated viewing. Sound is Dolby Digital 4.0, and picture is anamorphic 16:9 with both PAL and NTSC formats. The disc is region-free. The booklet is informative, though more for its madonnas than its music. --Harriet Smith [show more]

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