Francis Poulenc: Figure Humaine/Choral Works

Troubled by his own nascent Catholicism as well as the state of war-torn Europe, Francis Poulenc wrote his choral masterpiece, Figure humaine , in 1943, calling the cantata both a "sacred duty" and a patriotic gesture to France. Scored for double choir, at times dividing into 14 parts, the work sets texts by Paul Eluard, culminating in Liberté . It forms the centrepiece of an impeccable disc that includes Mass in G, Un Soir de neige and the Litanies à la Vierge noire , inspired by a pilgrimage to the black virgin of Rocamadour. It is all unaccompanied, as well as, in the rich, clashing harmonies and ethereal sounds, beguilingly unearthly.