Symphonie chorale

A cleverly arranged program such as Léo Warynski likes

ConcertClassic - Alain Cochard

- Symphonie chorale

09/11/2023 - 12:00

A cleverly arranged program such as Léo Warynski likes

ConcertClassic - Alain Cochard - Symphonie chorale

In concert and on record, Léo Warynski and his Métaboles spoil us! We found the conductor and his choristers at the Rencontres musicales de Vézelay, on August 25, for what constituted their first appearance as part of the event as an ensemble associated with the Cité de la Voix (until 2025) ; an appointment all the more eagerly awaited as the Métaboles presented themselves in large numbers in a program including one of the most extraordinary choral achievements of the end of the last century: the Choral Concerto by Alfred Schnittke. The score will only have had more impact placed as it was at the end of a program (entitled “Choral Symphony”) cleverly arranged as Léo Warynski likes them.

Kaleidoscope of images

The motet Spem in alium for 40 voices by Thomas Tallis opens the evening: taking possession of the immense space of the basilica by the choir (arranged in a circle on the stage for this piece), all the more striking for the listener that Warynski immediately demonstrates all his mastery of a sound material that the ear has the sensation of palpating. In its full expansion, as in its most infinitesimal expression: we measure it with the Tutto in una volta by Francesco Filidei (1973), a 2020 piece on a poem by Nanni Balestrini (where the writer plays on fragmentation, the word , the syllable: a way of returning, in Italy in the 60s, to what Marinetti and his futurist friends (1) offered before the First World War, claiming an approach no less anti-bourgeois) during which , according to Filidei, the music accompanies the text “by stringing together series of chords that cause the color to mutate slightly at each moment in a kaleidoscope of images. » A process that Warynski and his choristers translate and poetize with a confounding art of tiny nuance... of almost nothing...

Mahler transformed by Gérard Pesson

Change of climate with Gérard Pesson's transcription of the famous Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony. For the head of the Metaboles, it is a question of kneading with both hands the material of a transcription in which Pesson draws on extracts (chosen by Martin Kaltenecker) from the Venetian Sonnets and the 1824 Diary of August von Platen. A true feat is the transition from the orchestra to the choral universe, accomplished with an extraordinary sense of timbre: the piece takes its place very high in the list of transcriptions from the orchestra to the choir. Iridescence of the female music stands, abysmal depth of bass, flexibility and density without heaviness of the choral mass... The illusion is all the more perfect as Warynski has, as we know, a pronounced taste for such arrangements and can count on the interventions of admirable soloists: Anne-Laure Hulin (sop.), Laura Muller (alto), Marco van Baaren (tenor). His success is also due to his deep attention to the meaning of words; those of Von Platen in this case, a German homosexual poet who took refuge in Venice at the beginning of the Romantic century; further those of the 10th century Armenian monk, mystic and composer Gregory of Narek – extracts from his Book of Lamentations.

Human clay and quest for the absolute

From this work (translated into Russian by Naum Grebnev), Alfred Schnittke, converted to Christianity in 1982, took four fragments and immersed himself between 1984 and 1985 in writing the Choral Concerto. 49 singers, a score for mixed ensemble in sixteen parts: a particularly experienced sound architect is absolutely required to confront such a monument. We have it – and in what order! – with Léo Warynski. The Concerto has no shortage of spectacular moments and the conductor, followed by singers with impeccable intonation accuracy throughout, knows how to highlight them. It remains that the emotional force of his approach comes first, we return, to his ability to always anchor his reading in the words. The poetic and spiritual richness of the writings of Gregory of Narek continually guides him. “I wrote for the righteous and the sinners [...], for the oppressed and the great princes” ... Nothing disembodied, but quite the contrary a mixture of human clay and the quest for the absolute to which Schnittke totally identifies through a composition inscribed in the great tradition of Russian Orthodox music – in line with Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy and Rachmaninoff’s Vespers. A truly overwhelming experience, to which three admirable soloists made a particular contribution: Maya Villanueva (sop.), Marco Van Baaren (tenor) and Guillaume Olry (bass). Exactly contemporary with the Choir Concerto, the second of Schnittke's three Sacred Hymns, offered as an encore, completely captivates the audience. An evening written in the annals of the Vézelay Musical Meetings. Let us hope that the Métaboles will one day, hopefully soon, offer us a recording of the Choral Concerto...

A cleverly arranged program such as Léo Warynski likes

ConcertClassic - Alain Cochard

- Symphonie chorale

09/11/2023 - 12:00

A cleverly arranged program such as Léo Warynski likes

ConcertClassic - Alain Cochard - Symphonie chorale

In concert and on record, Léo Warynski and his Métaboles spoil us! We found the conductor and his choristers at the Rencontres musicales de Vézelay, on August 25, for what constituted their first appearance as part of the event as an ensemble associated with the Cité de la Voix (until 2025) ; an appointment all the more eagerly awaited as the Métaboles presented themselves in large numbers in a program including one of the most extraordinary choral achievements of the end of the last century: the Choral Concerto by Alfred Schnittke. The score will only have had more impact placed as it was at the end of a program (entitled “Choral Symphony”) cleverly arranged as Léo Warynski likes them.

Kaleidoscope of images

The motet Spem in alium for 40 voices by Thomas Tallis opens the evening: taking possession of the immense space of the basilica by the choir (arranged in a circle on the stage for this piece), all the more striking for the listener that Warynski immediately demonstrates all his mastery of a sound material that the ear has the sensation of palpating. In its full expansion, as in its most infinitesimal expression: we measure it with the Tutto in una volta by Francesco Filidei (1973), a 2020 piece on a poem by Nanni Balestrini (where the writer plays on fragmentation, the word , the syllable: a way of returning, in Italy in the 60s, to what Marinetti and his futurist friends (1) offered before the First World War, claiming an approach no less anti-bourgeois) during which , according to Filidei, the music accompanies the text “by stringing together series of chords that cause the color to mutate slightly at each moment in a kaleidoscope of images. » A process that Warynski and his choristers translate and poetize with a confounding art of tiny nuance... of almost nothing...

Mahler transformed by Gérard Pesson

Change of climate with Gérard Pesson's transcription of the famous Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony. For the head of the Metaboles, it is a question of kneading with both hands the material of a transcription in which Pesson draws on extracts (chosen by Martin Kaltenecker) from the Venetian Sonnets and the 1824 Diary of August von Platen. A true feat is the transition from the orchestra to the choral universe, accomplished with an extraordinary sense of timbre: the piece takes its place very high in the list of transcriptions from the orchestra to the choir. Iridescence of the female music stands, abysmal depth of bass, flexibility and density without heaviness of the choral mass... The illusion is all the more perfect as Warynski has, as we know, a pronounced taste for such arrangements and can count on the interventions of admirable soloists: Anne-Laure Hulin (sop.), Laura Muller (alto), Marco van Baaren (tenor). His success is also due to his deep attention to the meaning of words; those of Von Platen in this case, a German homosexual poet who took refuge in Venice at the beginning of the Romantic century; further those of the 10th century Armenian monk, mystic and composer Gregory of Narek – extracts from his Book of Lamentations.

Human clay and quest for the absolute

From this work (translated into Russian by Naum Grebnev), Alfred Schnittke, converted to Christianity in 1982, took four fragments and immersed himself between 1984 and 1985 in writing the Choral Concerto. 49 singers, a score for mixed ensemble in sixteen parts: a particularly experienced sound architect is absolutely required to confront such a monument. We have it – and in what order! – with Léo Warynski. The Concerto has no shortage of spectacular moments and the conductor, followed by singers with impeccable intonation accuracy throughout, knows how to highlight them. It remains that the emotional force of his approach comes first, we return, to his ability to always anchor his reading in the words. The poetic and spiritual richness of the writings of Gregory of Narek continually guides him. “I wrote for the righteous and the sinners [...], for the oppressed and the great princes” ... Nothing disembodied, but quite the contrary a mixture of human clay and the quest for the absolute to which Schnittke totally identifies through a composition inscribed in the great tradition of Russian Orthodox music – in line with Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy and Rachmaninoff’s Vespers. A truly overwhelming experience, to which three admirable soloists made a particular contribution: Maya Villanueva (sop.), Marco Van Baaren (tenor) and Guillaume Olry (bass). Exactly contemporary with the Choir Concerto, the second of Schnittke's three Sacred Hymns, offered as an encore, completely captivates the audience. An evening written in the annals of the Vézelay Musical Meetings. Let us hope that the Métaboles will one day, hopefully soon, offer us a recording of the Choral Concerto...

La précision de l’intonation, qualité emblématique des Métaboles

Jim Le Pariser - Gilles Charlassier

- Symphonie chorale

09/01/2023 - 12:00

La précision de l’intonation, qualité emblématique des Métaboles

Jim Le Pariser - Gilles Charlassier - Symphonie chorale

Les rencontres musicales de Vézelay, nouveaux chemins de choeurs

Creuset des Rencontres musicales de Vézelay, la Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine est un écrin idéal pour les grandes formes vocales, dans des mises en espace évocatrices. Le premier concert de la résidence triennale des Métaboles au festival – où il était déjà un invité régulier – s’inscrit dans cette tradition de scénographies chorales, avec une mise en écho des répertoires et esthétiques comme aime à les imaginer Léo Warynski. Le programme s’ouvre sur un des chefs-d’oeuvre du contrepoint de la Renaissance anglaise, le motet Spem in alium de Tallis, écrit pour quarante voix. Réunis en assemblée close sur elle-même, les solistes font émerger le flux polyphonique, ondulant au gré des entrées. L’immersion de l’intelligibilité des mots dans la texture sonore n’en oublie pas pour autant la précision de l’intonation, qualité emblématique des Métaboles depuis leurs débuts, et donne à cette page hors-norme de l’époque élisabéthaine une plasticité picturale. Bien que le sens des bribes poétiques de Nanni Balestrini sur lesquelles Francesco Filidei a composé Tutto in una volta pour double choeur n’ait guère d’importance, ce tissu d’esquisses verbales constitue une trame aux confins du souffle, avec des effets percussifs feutrés, à partir duquel se développe un autre tableau mouvant de voix. Depuis les premiers accents murmurés, le tissu hybridant chant et matière vocale brute s’étoffe par strates successives jusqu’à la densité d’un climax avant de se découdre progressivement vers le silence.

Cette expérience où le geste formel et musical transforme l’abstraction du texte en un théâtre miniature est prolongée par la réécriture chorale de l’iconique Adagietto de la Symphonie n°5 de Mahler que Gérard Pesson a réalisée sur un collage de Martin Kartenecker à partir de textes de August van Platen – poète romantique redécouvert par Thomas Mann au moment où il écrivait Mort à Venise et dont les penchants esthétiques ont inspiré l’adaptation de Visconti qui a contribué à décupler la renommée de la partition de Mahler. Plus qu’une simple transcription, c’est une réinvention de la traversée poétique du mouvement symphonique, dans des pastels parfois irradiants qui rappellent également la stase du film, et s’étendent jusqu’aux limites instrumentales de la voix. Si la première intervention soliste de l’alto Laura Muller tire parti de la douceur du médium, celle, longue, d’Anne-Laure Hulin met à l’épreuve sa tessiture de soprano, sans pour autant altérer la puissance évocatrice de la pièce – qui, discutée par certains, s’inscrit néanmoins dans la poétique de la trace développée par Pesson au fil de son œuvre. Quant au Concerto pour choeur de Schnittke qui referme la soirée, cette fresque en quatre parties où les première et troisième affirment un saisissant foisonnement qui contraste avec une deuxième plus intime et une conclusion condensée, trouve dans la nef de Vézelay une magnifique caisse de résonance propice redonner à cet opus majeur du répertoire choral la place qu’il mérite dans un concert où se répondent deux piliers de la polyphonie.

Le superbe voyage dans le temps des Métaboles à Vézelay

Bachtrack - Patrice Lieberman

- Symphonie chorale

08/29/2023 - 12:00

Le superbe voyage dans le temps des Métaboles à Vézelay

Bachtrack - Patrice Lieberman - Symphonie chorale

Quelques heures après le concert exceptionnel donné par l'Ensemble Correspondances à Vault-de-Lugny, le public des Rencontres musicales de Vézelay est de retour en ce vendredi soir dans la majestueuse Basilique pour le très attendu programme donné par le chœur Les Métaboles (placé sous la direction de Léo Warynski), intitulé « Symphonie chorale » – ce qui aura certainement attisé la curiosité de plus d’un mélomane.

En fait, c’est à un voyage dans le temps que les auditeurs sont conviés, puisque c’est par l’illustre motet à 40 (!) voix Spem in alium (1570) de Thomas Tallis que s’ouvre la soirée. Les chanteurs sont ici réunis en cercle autour du chef, et on reste admiratif autant de la façon dont fuse à tout moment la musique que par la qualité de l’exécution. Le reste du programme ne fera que le confirmer : on est ici en présence d’un ensemble de première force réunissant – selon les œuvres – jusqu’à 49 chanteurs tous jeunes, parfaitement sûrs sur le plan technique autant qu’enchanteurs sur celui de la beauté et de la fraîcheur vocales. Quant à Léo Warynski, il sculpte la musique (comme il le fera tout au long de la soirée) avec un remarquable sens de la construction.

Ce tour de force de la Renaissance est suivi par une œuvre récente (2020) de Francesco Filidei (né en 1973). Composée sur un texte assez décousu, en vers très brefs du poète Nanni Balestrini, la pièce voit le compositeur italien recourir à une vaste gamme de techniques vocales, maîtrisées sans problèmes par cette excellente formation. C’est ainsi que l'ouvrage commence par une alternance d’inspirations et d’exhalaisons avant de passer à des notes tenues. Filidei a recours à une dynamique très étendue, passant du murmure à des crescendos débouchant sur une véritable houle sonore. Ici, l’intelligibilité du texte est secondaire par rapport à la liberté rythmique et à l’indépendance des voix. Cette intéressante partition se conclura comme elle avait commencé, sur un souffle. Le chef, invariablement souriant et élégant dans sa gestuelle, peut compter sur un ensemble de premier ordre, les sopranos éthérées et les mezzo-sopranos fruitées se faisant particulièrement apprécier.

Le célébrissime Adagio de la Cinquième Symphonie de Mahler n’est pas donné ici dans la transcription pour chœur bien connue de Clytus Gottwald, mais dans une version du compositeur Gérard Pesson à treize voix qui prend pour texte des poèmes et des extraits du journal du poète allemand August von Platen, rédigés à Venise – où se passe justement le film de Visconti qui a beaucoup fait pour la popularité de ce morceau. Des trois solistes, la soprano Anne-Laure Hulin est particulièrement sollicitée et s’en tire avec les honneurs, comme ses collègues Laura Muller (alto) et Marco van Baaren (ténor).

Le sommet de la soirée est atteint par le rare Concerto pour chœur (1985) d’Alfred Schnittke, écrit sur une traduction russe d’un chef-d’œuvre de la poésie arménienne médiévale, le Livre des chansons tristes du moine Grégoire de Narek. Écrite en quatre parties, cette œuvre de grandes dimensions (trois-quarts d’heure) et d’une réelle hauteur de vues n’est pas de celles qui révèlent tous leurs mystères à la première écoute. L’écriture, très dense, est parfois percée de prenants solos où s’illustrent à nouveau Marco van Baaren ainsi que la soprano Maya Villanueva et la basse Guillaume Olry.

Schnittke réussit ici l’exploit de la fidélité à la musique liturgique orthodoxe et à son style homophonique et sonore couronné de vocalises extatiques. Ce n’est cependant pas une copie servile qu’il nous propose ici dans cette partition hors du commun, mais une fascinante exploration d’une tradition, dans une œuvre qui réussit à faire aller de pair l’humilité du croyant face à la grandeur de la Création, la foi inébranlable et émerveillée comme la joie et la gratitude qui transportent le fidèle. L’ensemble s’achève sur une très belle impression de lumineuse sérénité. Le chef et son remarquable ensemble se sont impliqués totalement pour nous donner une interprétation aussi virtuose que prenante de cette partition hors du commun.

Great art, served by Métaboles in great shape

Resmusica - Patrick Jézéquel

- Symphonie chorale

08/28/2023 - 12:00

Great art, served by Métaboles in great shape

Resmusica - Patrick Jézéquel - Symphonie chorale

“Choral symphony” in Vézelay: Les Métaboles thinks big!

After the St. Matthew Passion, return to the Sainte-Madeleine basilica, as part of the Rencontres musicales de Vézelay, for a choral madness spanning four centuries of composition, with pieces by Thomas Tallis, Gustav Mahler transcribed by Gérard Pesson, Alfred Schnittke and Francesco Filidei.

Great art, served by Métaboles in great shape. Very finely thought out, the program is built on solid and sometimes secret links. This is what Léo Warynski and Guy Gosselin reveal, gathered around Emmanuelle Giulani at the traditional “hearing session” which precedes the concert. A bridge between eras, the latter highlights connections between works and musicians, played or not this evening: the plurality of choirs in the Spem in alium (date unknown) by Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585) and Tutto un una volta ( 2020) by Francesco Filidei (born 1973); the inspiration that the latter draws from György Ligeti’s Lux æterna; the “polystylism” of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), composers borrowing from diverse sources; finally, the multiple affinities woven by Gérard Pesson (born in 1958) transcribing in Kein Deutscher Himmel (1996-1997) the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 (1901-1902). Precisely, for Pesson, who, in an interview about the work of transcription, cites the name of Salvatore Sciarrino, incidentally one of Francesco Filidei's former composition teachers, "a composer was never born under X." . We should not forget the Slavic roots of a choir director who included Schnittke’s Choral Concerto (1984-1985) as his main course. Intended as such by Léo Warynski, this evening plays on the dual picture of invention and memory so that listeners experience a few shocks without having lost all bearings.

les Métaboles form a full circle on the stage before singing Tallis’ 40-voice Spem in alium. You have to imagine the singers placed in front with their backs to the audience. Men and women alternate in small groups of 2 or 3. So a particular spatialization for a piece which is no less so, written for 8 choirs and 5 voices on Latin lyrics whose origin is the Book of Judith. This contrapuntal composition expresses a supplication addressed to God, first uttered very humbly by two sopranos and gradually swelling, contaminating all registers. A long phrase which stretches, becomes richer, is cut up and redoubles into rhythmic cells, dies away before being taken up in a crescendo to burst into a tutti on important words such as Deus meus. The audience finds themselves enveloped in a long continuum that is constantly changing and rarely interrupted. The delicacy and fervor of such a piece are perfectly rendered by the singers.

From an anarchist father and a practicing Catholic mother, Francesco Filidei, himself a notable organist, therefore inherited this double tradition, which is felt in his musical production, as here with Tutto in una volta – “All at once” – inspired by a text by the avant-garde poet Nanni Balestrini (1935-2019), “Ma noi facciamone un'altra” (1966), which can be translated as: “But let's try one more time”. Modeling its composition on an unstructured poem that rejects lyricism and narration ("There is no more / Time for / But everything / In at the same time / Both what / We have / Already said to each other / Like that on / The paper / All at / At the same time…), Filidei plays on what remains, the syllables, by placing “series of chords which cause the color to mutate slightly at each moment in a kaleidoscope of images. » We begin by hearing "ah" murmured here and there throughout the choir facing us, to the very beautiful effect of bubbles bursting on the surface of a pond, then what very strongly resembles the beginning of Ligeti's Lux aeterna, also mixed a cappella choir written in canon and in an imperceptibly evolving micropolyphony. The wave slowly swells, the tension drops then begins a long decrescendo until the initial “ah” returns. It is difficult to forget Ligeti and appreciate this Tutto in una volta even though it was successful.

The same difficulty presents itself to the ear, faithful but naturally lazy, when listening to Gérard Pesson's Kein Deutscher Himmel, a transcription of the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5: can it forget the model? But the hair stands on end and tingles run through the body at the first bars, when the supple voices of the violas resonate on the piano, taken up solo at the far right of the stage by the very timbre of Laura Muller. It's beautiful to cry. While respecting the original score, the composer sought to reproduce the very rich and subtle acoustic universe of the Venice lagoon, not only thanks to the complicity of Martin Kaltenecker, who added extracts from the Venetian Sonnets as well as the Journal of German romantic poet August von Platen (1796-1835), but also and above all by the fine variation of timbres and the use of the extreme high notes of a soprano (Anne-Laure Hulin, masterful) in order to circumvent the inevitable reduction of the ambitus of the choir in relation to that of the orchestra. It took the excellence of an ensemble like the Métaboles to interpret this metamorphosis.

Last, but not least: the four movements of the Choir Concerto, by Alfred Schnittke, lasting approximately 45 minutes. In the Russian Orthodox tradition, “concerto” is to be understood as “motet” or “cantata”. The text: The Book of Lamentations by the Armenian monk and poet Gregory of Narek (951-1003), in the Russian translation by Naum Grebnev. Be careful, excess presides here, from meditation to incantation and from confidence to mystical trance, with very powerful crescendos and tuttis, the very beautiful melismas of solo voices soaring above the mass ( the soprano Maya Villanueva, the tenor Marco Van Baaren), successive waves of increasing intensity or even the “black sorrow” of an instant prayer. Very collected themselves, all of the choristers perfectly convey the lyricism, the dramaturgy and the devotion which underlie this spiritual piece from start to finish. The space of the basilica will have offered throughout the evening (at least in the first rows) the space required by this choral music.

he generous Léo Warynski announces as an encore the second of the Three Sacred Hymns (1984) by the same Schnittke. Thanks, Maestro!

Great art, served by Métaboles in great shape

Resmusica - Patrick Jézéquel

- Symphonie chorale

08/28/2023 - 12:00

Great art, served by Métaboles in great shape

Resmusica - Patrick Jézéquel - Symphonie chorale

“Choral symphony” in Vézelay: Les Métaboles thinks big!

After the St. Matthew Passion, return to the Sainte-Madeleine basilica, as part of the Rencontres musicales de Vézelay, for a choral madness spanning four centuries of composition, with pieces by Thomas Tallis, Gustav Mahler transcribed by Gérard Pesson, Alfred Schnittke and Francesco Filidei.

Great art, served by Métaboles in great shape. Very finely thought out, the program is built on solid and sometimes secret links. This is what Léo Warynski and Guy Gosselin reveal, gathered around Emmanuelle Giulani at the traditional “hearing session” which precedes the concert. A bridge between eras, the latter highlights connections between works and musicians, played or not this evening: the plurality of choirs in the Spem in alium (date unknown) by Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585) and Tutto un una volta ( 2020) by Francesco Filidei (born 1973); the inspiration that the latter draws from György Ligeti’s Lux æterna; the “polystylism” of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), composers borrowing from diverse sources; finally, the multiple affinities woven by Gérard Pesson (born in 1958) transcribing in Kein Deutscher Himmel (1996-1997) the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 (1901-1902). Precisely, for Pesson, who, in an interview about the work of transcription, cites the name of Salvatore Sciarrino, incidentally one of Francesco Filidei's former composition teachers, "a composer was never born under X." . We should not forget the Slavic roots of a choir director who included Schnittke’s Choral Concerto (1984-1985) as his main course. Intended as such by Léo Warynski, this evening plays on the dual picture of invention and memory so that listeners experience a few shocks without having lost all bearings.

les Métaboles form a full circle on the stage before singing Tallis’ 40-voice Spem in alium. You have to imagine the singers placed in front with their backs to the audience. Men and women alternate in small groups of 2 or 3. So a particular spatialization for a piece which is no less so, written for 8 choirs and 5 voices on Latin lyrics whose origin is the Book of Judith. This contrapuntal composition expresses a supplication addressed to God, first uttered very humbly by two sopranos and gradually swelling, contaminating all registers. A long phrase which stretches, becomes richer, is cut up and redoubles into rhythmic cells, dies away before being taken up in a crescendo to burst into a tutti on important words such as Deus meus. The audience finds themselves enveloped in a long continuum that is constantly changing and rarely interrupted. The delicacy and fervor of such a piece are perfectly rendered by the singers.

From an anarchist father and a practicing Catholic mother, Francesco Filidei, himself a notable organist, therefore inherited this double tradition, which is felt in his musical production, as here with Tutto in una volta – “All at once” – inspired by a text by the avant-garde poet Nanni Balestrini (1935-2019), “Ma noi facciamone un'altra” (1966), which can be translated as: “But let's try one more time”. Modeling its composition on an unstructured poem that rejects lyricism and narration ("There is no more / Time for / But everything / In at the same time / Both what / We have / Already said to each other / Like that on / The paper / All at / At the same time…), Filidei plays on what remains, the syllables, by placing “series of chords which cause the color to mutate slightly at each moment in a kaleidoscope of images. » We begin by hearing "ah" murmured here and there throughout the choir facing us, to the very beautiful effect of bubbles bursting on the surface of a pond, then what very strongly resembles the beginning of Ligeti's Lux aeterna, also mixed a cappella choir written in canon and in an imperceptibly evolving micropolyphony. The wave slowly swells, the tension drops then begins a long decrescendo until the initial “ah” returns. It is difficult to forget Ligeti and appreciate this Tutto in una volta even though it was successful.

The same difficulty presents itself to the ear, faithful but naturally lazy, when listening to Gérard Pesson's Kein Deutscher Himmel, a transcription of the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5: can it forget the model? But the hair stands on end and tingles run through the body at the first bars, when the supple voices of the violas resonate on the piano, taken up solo at the far right of the stage by the very timbre of Laura Muller. It's beautiful to cry. While respecting the original score, the composer sought to reproduce the very rich and subtle acoustic universe of the Venice lagoon, not only thanks to the complicity of Martin Kaltenecker, who added extracts from the Venetian Sonnets as well as the Journal of German romantic poet August von Platen (1796-1835), but also and above all by the fine variation of timbres and the use of the extreme high notes of a soprano (Anne-Laure Hulin, masterful) in order to circumvent the inevitable reduction of the ambitus of the choir in relation to that of the orchestra. It took the excellence of an ensemble like the Métaboles to interpret this metamorphosis.

Last, but not least: the four movements of the Choir Concerto, by Alfred Schnittke, lasting approximately 45 minutes. In the Russian Orthodox tradition, “concerto” is to be understood as “motet” or “cantata”. The text: The Book of Lamentations by the Armenian monk and poet Gregory of Narek (951-1003), in the Russian translation by Naum Grebnev. Be careful, excess presides here, from meditation to incantation and from confidence to mystical trance, with very powerful crescendos and tuttis, the very beautiful melismas of solo voices soaring above the mass ( the soprano Maya Villanueva, the tenor Marco Van Baaren), successive waves of increasing intensity or even the “black sorrow” of an instant prayer. Very collected themselves, all of the choristers perfectly convey the lyricism, the dramaturgy and the devotion which underlie this spiritual piece from start to finish. The space of the basilica will have offered throughout the evening (at least in the first rows) the space required by this choral music.

he generous Léo Warynski announces as an encore the second of the Three Sacred Hymns (1984) by the same Schnittke. Thanks, Maestro!