ORATORIOS

After a first collaboration in 2019 with a musical program entitled “Nordic Bach! ", the string musicians of Orchestre régional de Normandie and the singers of the vocal ensemble Les Métaboles are once again reunited under the direction of Léo Warynski.

At the initiative of the Royaumont Foundation, the two ensembles will perform an original musical program which brings together Camille Saint-Saëns - to whom we are paying tribute in 2021 on the occasion of the centenary of his death - and the young French composer Basile Chassaing, 2019 laureate of the Académie Voix Nouvelles of the Royaumont Foundation.

Entitled “Oratorios”, this project combines a contemporary creation and a major work from the repertoire according to the same theme. Camille Saint-Saëns’s Christmas Oratorio was composed in just twelve days and premiered on December 24, 1858 in Paris. This work is divided into ten numbers alternating formats (choirs, solo passages, duets, quintets ...) based on Latin texts from the Bible and the Catholic liturgy selected by the composer. The second section, the only narrative one, introduces the story of the Nativity, while the other pieces consist more of reflections or prayers. The Oratorio reaches its climax with choir n ° 6, the power of which is accentuated by the ethereal style of the two pieces for voice, harp and organ which surround it. According to Howard Smither, Saint-Saëns modeled his Christmas Oratorio on the second part of Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio - Saint-Saëns also specified that the "Prelude" of his work was written "In Bach's style ”.