Martin: Mass for Double Choir; Passacaille for Organ / Pizzetti: Messa di Requiem; De Profundis

Martin : Messe pour double chœur - Passacaille pour orgue - Pizzetti : Messe de Requiem - De profundis / Westminster Cathedral Choir, dir. James O'Donnell

It's tempting to describe the extraordinary works on this disc as "neo-Palestrina". That wouldn't really work for Martin's Mass, as it might for Vaughan Williams's Mass in G Minor. Where Vaughan Williams stays rooted in a single tonality, Martin skitters from one to another, liberally sprinkling chromaticism and dissonance in a very 20th-century manner. Yet Martin conveys austerity, joy, and even some romantic emotionalism. The sinuous melodies and modal counterpoint of Pizzetti's Requiem are more obviously indebted to the Renaissance. His scoring is richly varied--ranging from striking two-part writing in the Dies irae, where the traditional chant melody supports a keening countermelody, to three four-part choirs in the dazzling Sanctus. The Choir of Westminster Cathedral (in a vocally secure, gripping performance) nicely captures and balances every element in this mix. --Matthew Westphal