Frank Martin; Ildebrando Pizzetti - Mass; Messa di Requiem (James O'Donnell)

Information

Composer: Frank Martin; Ildebrando Pizzetti

• Martin - Mass for double choir
• Martin - Passacaille for organ
• Pizzetti - Messa di Requiem
• Pizzetti - De profundis

Westminster Cathedral Choir

James O'Donnell, conductor & organ

Date: 1998

Label: Hyperion

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Review

These are magnificent performances. Only 18 months ago we had an outstanding record of Frank Martin’s beautiful Mass for Double Choir from Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. Now comes another of comparable quality and distinction, which you should acquire even if you have the Collins issue. Written in 1922, the Agnus Dei being added four years later, the Mass is one of Martin’s most sublime compositions. He never encouraged performances of it and it did not enter the public domain before the 1960s and took some time before it was firmly established in the repertory. A little to my surprise, I found it gained enormously from using boys’ rather than female voices. Some years ago when comparing Ralf Otto and the Frankfurt Vocal Ensemble with Stephen Darlington and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, I thought the women naturally scored over the boys in terms of understanding and maturity. It is a measure of James O’Donnell’s achievement with Westminster Cathedral Choir that the gain in purity and beauty is at no time at the expense of depth and fervour. This is an altogether moving and eloquent performance, often quite thrilling and always satisfying.

Harry Christophers offers a group of rare Martin pieces including the magical Funf Gesange des Ariel, written for Felix de Nobel’s famous Netherlands Chamber Choir, and the Cantate pour le 1er aout for chorus and organ and the Ode a la musique. The new disc brings us a fine performance by O’Donnell of the Passacaille, not abundantly represented on CD at present, and the Pizzetti Messa di Requiem, also composed in 1922. Pizzetti’s music enjoys all too little exposure these days. His suite, La Pisanella, ought to be a popular repertory piece and I hope Daniele Gatti will champion it in this country. The received wisdom, however, is that it is in his a cappella music that Pizzetti is at his finest and in his 1951 monograph Guido Gatti spoke of his setting as “the most serene and lyrical of all ... from Mozart’s to Gabriel Faure’s”. Serene and lyrical it most certainly is, and it will come, I suspect, as a revelation to those encountering it for the first time. I intend no disrespect to the expert Danish performance on Chandos but this is in a different league. There is a fervour and a conviction about the Westminster performances of both the Requiem and the 1937 De profundis (which Pizzetti wrote to mark the healing of his breach with Malipiero). The luminous tone this choir produce in both these inspired and masterly works will ring in your ears long after you have finished playing this splendidly recorded disc.

— Robert Layton

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Frank Martin (15 September 1890 – 21 November 1974) was a Swiss composer. Born in Geneva, he studied under Joseph Lauber and Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. He served as president of the Swiss Musicians' Union (1943–1946) before moving to the Netherlands. A performer as well as a composer, Martin toured widely as a pianist and harpsichordist. His compositions blended German influences, especially Bach, with French harmonic innovations. Notable works include the oratorios Le Vin herbé and Golgotha, the opera Der Sturm, and a Requiem, along with numerous concertos, orchestral and chamber works.

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Ildebrando Pizzetti (20 September 1880 – 13 February 1968) was an Italian composer. Born in Parma, he studied at the Parma Musical Conservatoire from 1895 to 1901. After graduation, Pizzetti dedicated his life to composing, teaching and writing about music, with a focus on theatrical works. His style blended late-Romantic lyricism, early Italian structural clarity, and tonal flexibility. A respected educator, he served as director of the Florence Conservatory (1917–23), Milan Conservatory (1923–36), and succeeded Respighi at St Cecilia (1936–58). Among his notable students was Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

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James O'Donnell (born 15 August 1961) is a British organist, choral conductor and teacher. He studied at the Royal College of Music and Cambridge University. In 1982, he became Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral and was promoted to Master in 1988. From 2000 to 2022, he served as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey, overseeing music at major royal events including the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, and Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral. He has taught at the Royal Academy of Music and, since 2023, at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music.

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