Frank Martin:
Mass for double choir a cappella:
I. Kyrie
II. Gloria
III. Credo
IV. Sanctus – Benedictus
V. Agnus Dei

Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur:
Le Cantique des cantiques:
No. 1, Dialogue
No. 2, La voix du bien-aimé
No. 3, Le songe
No. 4, Le Roi Salomon
No. 5, Le jardin clos
No. 6, La Sulamite
No. 7, Épithalame

Olivier Messiaen:
O sacrum convivium

The Netherlands Radio Choir and Benjamin Goodson present The Voice of the Beloved, a powerful collection of 20th-century sacred choral works by Frank Martin, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, and Olivier Messiaen. At its heart is Martin’s Mass for Double Choir, a deeply personal expression of faith composed in 1922 and kept private for decades. Its austere beauty and luminous harmonies make it one of the most moving sacred works of the last century. Daniel-Lesur’s Le Cantique des cantiques transforms the Song of Songs into a sensual and spiritual choral tapestry, weaving up to twelve voices into a radiant soundscape. Messiaen’s O sacrum convivium, a brief but transcendent motet, completes the program with shimmering reverence. Following their acclaimed 2023 release Rheinberger & Mendelssohn: Choral Works, the choir returns with a recording that reveals the sacred not only in worship, but in the raw, expressive power of the human voice.

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This album was recorded in Studio 1 at Heuvellaan Hilversum, from 20-23 August 2024 and 18-20 September 2024.