Frank Martin: Missa

Neither in painting nor in music has impressionism become synonymous with a profound confrontation with faith. That is, until the Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890–1974) opened the compositional doors of his era and enabled a new approach. Already in his early years he was capable of grappling with the depths of a Kyrie, the gravity of a Gloria or setting a Credo to music – by composing his impressive Missa für zwei vierstimmige Chöre (Missa for Two Choirs in Four Parts). Sound images appear in which the power of liturgical forms of expression introduce and reveal the worship service in an unexpected manner.
The mass is juxtaposed with twenty-first-century compositions by Matthias Grünert. In the Agnus Dei and the Pater Noster, this composer likewise proves himself to be a master of the expression of our time characterised by spiritual-liturgical form – the Musica Sacra.
The two compositions come together here under the auspices of the ten-year anniversary of the reconstruction of the Frauenkriche Dresden – the site that, as a re-established symbol of peace and reconciliation, radiates light and purity into our world. The works are interpreted here by one of the church’s ambassadors for peace, the Kammerchor der Frauenkirche under the direction of Frauenkirchenkantor Matthias Grünert.
Those things thus come together that do indeed belong together: music of two centuries and a spiritual symbol of two eras that seem to be more closely situated than expected today.

Kammerchor der Frauenkirche Dresden
Frauenkirchenkantor Matthias Grünert

Kulturradio RBB (17. November 2015, Astrid Belscher)

"So zeigt der Chor auch mit dieser CD seine hohe Qualität. Er interpretiert alle Werke klangschön und homogen und singt sehr dicht und flüssig. Vorbildlich ist seine Artikulation und die Durchsichtigkeit der Gestaltung. Dennoch hat bringt der Chor den für diese Werke auch unerlässlichen Biss auf. Das Orgelwerk unterbricht dramaturgisch geschickt die beiden Chor-Teile. Matthias Grünert spielt die drei
Stücke von Percy Fletcher sehr wirkungsvoll und flüssig. Eine CD-Empfehlung für alle, die Freude an Chormusik und geistlicher Musik jenseits des üblichen klassisch-romantischen Repertoires haben.

Bewertung: * * * * * (großartig)"

MusicWeb International (4. Dezember 2015, William Hedley)

"Matthias Grünert plays all three pieces with exceptional skill, his nimble fingers particularly impressive in the second and third pieces. The composer is responsable for the clear textures, but Grünert's registration certainly help. The recording is superbly immediate whilst at the same giving a lovely feel of the building. [...]
The Chamber Choir of the Dresden Frauenkirche number about thirty-five singers. They perform the Martin, as they also do their conductor's two pieces, with exquisite purity and beauty of tone, splendid blend, unanimity of attack and impeccable tuning."

MusicWeb International (7. Dezember 2015, William Hedley)

„This is beautifully sung, and the difficult balance between the two choirs is perfectly judged“

Gramophone (Februar 2016, Peter Quantrill)

“Grünert is a bravura performer”