Jardin féérique
Jardin féérique
Recorded with the NoMadMusic label, Jardin féérique is an a cappella program - Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Britten and Schafer - in which nature is alternately a harmonic or fantastic garden, a place of contemplation or reflection, or simply a soundscape
The a cappella vocal writing of the composers recorded on this disc reveals, by their precision and their attention to detail, that they were also great orchestrators Les Métaboles and their conductor Léo Warynski paid particular attention to the intelligibility and the expressiveness of the voices, but also the restitution of this orchestral dimension by means of all the dynamic palette that a choir can offer: from the almost whispered piano to the loudest and most intense.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Saint-Saëns wrote: "It is from the sounds of Nature that Music was born, as well as the sounds produced by the breath in reed stems. It’s mostly about the human voice. "
In this disc of works only a cappella, the voices pay their share to this nature which engendered them, through the highest incarnation of the device which is written music. In all of the rooms, nature is in turn a harmonic or fantastic garden, a place of contemplation or reflection, or simply a soundscape.
(Extract from the presentation text of Louis Castelain)
In the press
 An original and cleverly designed program29/03/2020
Resmusica - Pierre Degott
Jardin féérique - album
Les Métaboles, led by its conductor and creator Léo Warynski, continues its exploration of the choral a capella repertoire. This has brought us some fine discoveries of pieces rarely heard, such as for example the "Three songs" for a capella choir by Ravel, on a text by the composer, or even a number of pieces by Saint-Saëns, one of which, "The Flowers and Trees ", was also written by its composer. The thematic coherence of the program is ensured by the recurring subject of nature, which informs as much the pieces of French composers as Britten's "Five Flower Songs", the text of which is borrowed from different poets. From the great English musician, we hear with pleasure the superb "Hymn to St. Cecilia", a well-known piece across the Channel but, inexplicably, rarely performed in France. This cycle written on a text by the poet W.H. Auden was supposed to revive the tradition of the Odes at Sainte-Cécile of the late seventeenth century English. The CD ends with the very contemporary "Miniwanka or The Moments of Water" by composer Raymond Murray Schafer, a work that cleverly complements the thematic program of the album by his attempts to imitate the sound of water. |
 Rich without unnecessary luxury, the interpretation of the Métaboles always seduces by the exactitude of the intentions that their leader, Léo Warynski, knows how to obtain27/03/2020
Le Monde - Pierre Gervasoni
Jardin féérique - album
To testify to the level of excellence it has reached after ten years of existence, the ensemble Les Métaboles could not find better than the first track on this recording. Thierry Machuel's superb transcription of Ravel's "Jardin Féérique" allows it to unfold endlessly in a choral space that other planets will then come to cross during this voyage that is in turn soothing (Saint-Saëns' "Romance du soir"), dreamlike (Ravel's "La Vallée des cloches", transcribed by the master craftsman Clytus Gottwald) and hedonistic (various pages by Britten). Rich without unnecessary luxury, the interpretation of Les Métaboles always seduces by the exactitude of the intentions that their leader, Léo Warynski, knows how to obtain. In particular, in Raymond Murray Schafer's delectable "Miniwanka or the Moments of Water," which closes this enchanting journey. |
Maurice Ravel
1 - Le jardin féérique
Transcription Thierry Machuel
Camille Saint-Saëns
2 - Romance du soir
3 - Des Pas dans l’allée
4 - Les Fleurs et les Arbres
5 - Calme des Nuits
Maurice Ravel, Trois chansons
6 - I. Nicolette
7 - II. Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis
8 - III. Ronde
Maurice Ravel
9 - La vallée des cloches
Transcription Clytus Gottwald
Benjamin Britten
10 - Hymn to St. Cecilia op.27
Five Flowers Songs
11 - I. To daffodils
12 - II. The succession of the four sweet months
13 - III. Marsh flowers
14 - IV. The evening primrose
15 - V. Ballad of green broom
Raymond Murray Schafer
16 - Miniwanka or The Moments of Water