Part of a series of discs devoted to forgotten composers associated with the Bavarian capital of Munich, this release exemplifies the city's still-palpable conservatism. Franz Lachner, who grew up so poor that he and his five siblings had to study music by drumming their fingers on an imaginary keyboard, made his living as composers had for centuries before, but as few did in his own time: as an employee of court and church. The Germans have a word for the style exemplified here, which is not well known outside of a few atypical examples by
Mendelssohn: they call it the "Palestrina Renaissance." Heard here are a Mass in F major, Op. 130; a Stabat Mater, Op. 154; and a setting of Psalm 15. All are for double choir, a cappella, and the first two have solo parts as well. The inspiration is definitely the Renaissance, and specifically the "purifying" spirit of the Counter Reformation, but the music in no way has the scholastic quality of an exercise. The harmonies are those of Viennese Classicism, and it is quite clear that Lachner as a young composer knew (personally as well as professionally)
Beethoven and especially
Schubert. What's appealing about his music is the way he maps the harmonic moves of the post-Classical era onto the large double-choir textures of the late sixteenth century. The music is in no way impersonal but vividly reflects the texts, with expertly developed chromatic lines in the Stabat Mater and a detailed setting of the wordy text of the Credo in the mass. The variety of treatments of the soloists is notable; they run the gamut from aria-like utterances to trios and quartets that emerge only unobtrusively from the choral texture, all without going beyond the modest outlines of the style Lachner has defined for himself. Beautifully recorded, this disc will appeal to lovers of unaccompanied choral music who will find music that doesn't sound precisely like anything else in their collections.