Silvestrov: Sacred Works

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Pierre Moulu, Missa Missus est Gabriel angelus etc (Hyperion)
Rating: *****

Valentin Silvestrov, Sacred Works (ECM, both through Ode Records)
Rating: ****

Verdict: "Sacred song across the centuries highlights the glorious sound of acappella."


Those with a yen for mysteries and puzzles should search out the Brabant Ensemble's new disc of choral music by Pierre Moulu. We know very little about this French composer from the first half of the 16th century, apart from his associations with the Royal Chapel and Meaux Cathedral.

The music that survives, in keeping with its times, is sometimes based on complex and puzzling mathematical premises, although Moulu, who was probably a pupil of Josquin, disguised his learning with rich, sonorous textures.

His Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater comes in two versions, short and long, according to whether the more substantial rests are observed, yet there are none of the harmonic collisions that might be expected. Stephen Rice explains Moulu's feat in his fine booklet essay and two movements from the Mass are included in both short and long versions.

Listening to Rice direct his singers, imprinting their own signature on the performance with the tang of Latin pronounced in the French style, beauty of sound is foremost. Indeed, one would never suspect such a cerebral undercarriage.

Five centuries later, the choral music of Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov takes its inspiration from the chants of the Russian liturgy rather than the Roman Mass.

A recent ECM collection of his sacred music by the Kiev Chamber Choir under Mykola Hobdych sees this reformed modernist penning what amounts to a series of love letters to the major and minor chord.

True, he blurs edges here and there, soloists weave in and out of the mix and the chords themselves flutter, tremble and dance like feathers caught in the breeze. And the spacey acoustics of Kiev's Cathedral of the Dormition create soundscapes that will appeal to ECM aficionados who like their music on the ambient side.

Despite the occasional phrases that sound as if they have slipped from a Manhattan Transfer chart, Silvestrov's music has a strange, incantatory power, especially in the final triptych of Alleluias, with their ecstatic, cascading modulations. Elsewhere, alas, the lack of texts is a real liability.