From Ravel to Saint-Saëns or Britten, the vocal ensemble Les Métaboles, reveals its version of utopia to us.
Are you in need of some air ? A fairytale garden, a bucolic album, this third opus by Les Métaboles, reaches out to you. You can just amble through it or even fantasize about a relatively domesticated nature. Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, is moved by the celestial sounds produced by Saint Cecile, the patron saint of musicians, and supernatural creatures inhabit the pretty Ormonde woods. The evenings are long, meditative and bewitching. Drama starts brewing when the birds of paradise return from war, then disappears when Lazy John finds love by cutting Scots’ broom....
In this extraordinary garden there are humans who sing in English as well as in French, with beautiful, expressive voices, able to adapt to different styles of musical writing and (re)creating the most fitting atmosphere on each occasion.
The repertoire mixes well-known pieces, such as Maurice Ravel's "Trois Chansons" (1875-1937), and others that are less well-known, such as transcriptions of "Le Jardin féerique" and "La Vallée des cloches", from the Ravellian cycles "Ma Mère l'Oye" and Miroirs. The nostalgic pieces by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) are to be rediscovered, the "Hymn to St Cecilia" by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and his "Five Flowers Songs" are particularly appealing, and R. Murray Schafer (born 1933) offers a post scriptum of lavish vocality.
In the galaxy of a cappella choral singing, the ensemble Les Métaboles, founded in 2010 and directed by Leo Warynski, is a star of the highest ranking.