Poulenc: Gloria; Stabat Mater

In this luminous 1989 recording of Poulenc’s late sacred choral masterpieces, Stabat Mater (1951) and Gloria (1959), playfulness and piety refract through the clarion voice of soprano Kathleen Battle like the light streaming through the stained glass windows that adorn its cover, fully irradiating the composer’s sublime spectrum of sacred and profane.