Recordings of Maurice Ohana's music have come and gone over the years, but this new one of his Cantigas is especially welcome. It consists of six deeply-felt settings of medieval Spanish texts in celebration of the Virgin Mary, the musical style being a personal brand of modal chromaticism with Stravinskyan sonorities emanating from the 12 instruments and percussion. 'Settings' may be the wrong word, since the note assures us that the words were chosen after the music had been written (the texts themselves are not provided). What is clear is that the ''jubilation and drama... sensuality and asceticism'' claimed for the music do indeed make a compelling mixture, and they grow more impressive with repeated hearing. Most memorable of all, perhaps, are the a cappella lines of the first and fourth Cantigas; but the dramatic intervening ones and the radiant conclusion are also vividly imagined, and the overall disposition is convincing.
Les noces makes an ideal coupling, given the similarity of style and forces involved. The performance is well integrated and has a sweep from start to finish which produces a tremendous accumulation of energy. The tenor solos are somewhat underpowered, however, and severe disappointment is in store at the culmination of the whole work, for the bass sounds on the point of collapse. For Stravinsky there is perhaps a shade too much blend, insufficient separation, in the recorded sound, but it seems to suit Ohana admirably. In the Cantigas some of the more abstruse harmonies give the choir momentary discomfort, but in general the singing is articulate and tonally attractive. Without pretending that Cantigas is to be rated with Stravinsky or Messiaen (whose harmonic language occasionally comes to mind), it is certainly worth while drawing it to the attention of our own professional choirs, maybe even to some of our more ambitious amateurs as well.'