Het Nederlands Kamerkoor commemorates the 50th anniversary of the death of Swiss composer Frank Martin, who lived in Naarden for a long time. His Mass for double choir is among the most beautiful choral works ever written. You will also hear his enchanting Songs of Ariel (text from Shakespeare’s Tempest), which he composed for the NKK in 1951, and Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence by Francis Poulen, another composer with whom the choir maintained warm ties.

Martin wrote his Mass for double choir in 1922, then shoved the piece in his desk drawer, added a moving Agnus Dei in 1926, only to put it back in his drawer. It wasn’t until 1963 that his masterpiece was premiered, after which it became a work beloved worldwide. “I didn’t want the work to be performed. I thought it was a matter between God and myself,” Frank would later say of it.