The Netherlands Radio Choir and Benjamin Goodson present The Voice of the Beloved, a powerful collection of 20th-century sacred choral works by Frank Martin, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, and Olivier Messiaen.

At its heart is Martin’s Mass for Double Choir, a deeply personal expression of faith composed in 1922 and kept private for decades. Its austere beauty and luminous harmonies make it one of the most moving sacred works of the last century. Daniel-Lesur’s Le Cantique des cantiques transforms the Song of Songs into a sensual and spiritual choral tapestry, weaving up to twelve voices into a radiant soundscape. Messiaen’s O sacrum convivium, a brief but transcendent motet, completes the program with shimmering reverence.

Following their acclaimed 2023 release Rheinberger & Mendelssohn: Choral Works, the choir returns with a recording that reveals the sacred not only in worship, but in the raw, expressive power of the human voice.

Each of these works opens a different portal to the sacred: through awe, through longing, through patience. They remind us that religious experience is not always about answers, but about being present to mystery in all its forms.
– Benjamin Goodson, conductor

The Netherlands Radio Choir
Benjamin Goodson, Conductor