Mysterious Nativity

From the companionship between Les Métaboles and Russian composer Dimitri Tchesnokov was born the program Mysterious Nativity (record released in 2014 by Brillant Classics). Les Trois chants sacrés is his first choral work, mirroring the Trois hymnes sacrés by his compatriot Alfred Schnittke (1984).

The extremely hieratic aspect of the sonority of the choir in this program makes the viewer forget that, apart from Tchaikovsky's famous Hymn of the Cherubim, it is about works from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Mysterious Nativity illustrates the Metaboles' stance: to defend the choral repertoire of all eras and to promote contemporary masterpieces little known in France. The program thus puts the spotlight on works for choir by Georgy Sviridov, extremely well known in Russia but little sung in France, as well as pieces by the famous Estonian composer Arvo Pärt: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis.