An original and cleverly designed program

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.