If you’ve not heard Swiss composer Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir, then you should have: and now you can hear it on-line, in a live performance being streamed over on Q2 (click on the ‘play’ icon to launch).
The Latvian National Choir gave a performance as part of the Lincoln Centre’s inaugural ‘White Light Festival.’ There are also pieces by Arvo Pärt and the wonderful Veljo Tormis as well.
A deeply religious composer, Martin kept the manuscript to the Mass hidden for nearly forty years, feeling that the piece represented such a personal expression of belief that it should not be made public. It remained unperformed until 1963; Martin died in 1974.
Click here to visit the Q2 page: you won’t be disappointed.