Kantate zum Sonntag Quasimodogeniti. Par BACH JOHANN SEBASTIAN. Instead of an opening chorus Cantata BWV 42 begins with a magnificent Sinfonia in the style of the Brandenburg Concertos. It is possible that Bach took this movement from a concerto which he had composed earlier. The first aria, for alto with obbligato oboe and bassoon, could be derived from the middle movement of this concerto. The heroic bass aria, a statement of the certainty of faith, forms a weighty counterpart to the opening movement./ Répertoire / Choeur et Orchestre

Par BENJAMIN GEORGE. Picture a day like this is the fourth collaboration between George Benjamin and Martin Crimp, whose acclaimed partnership produced Written on Skin, Lessons in Love and Violence, and Into the Little Hill. The opera – “a kind of Alice in Wonderland, but for adults”, says Crimp – lasts just over an hour and is cast in seven scenes. It is scored for five voices (S-S-MS-CT-Bar) and twenty-two instrumentalists. It premiered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2023, conducted by the composer. Picture a day like this is a bittersweet fable of grief and renewal. Benjamin and Crimp tell the story of a Woman who has lost her child: if, before nightfall, she meets one truly happy person and cuts a button from their sleeve, her child will live again. In her search she meets a pair of lovers, a Composer and their Assistant, an Artisan, Collector, and, in a beautiful garden, the mysterious Zabelle. This limited edition of the full score is one of only one hundred and fifty, presented in a cloth-bound hard cover. It is signed by George Benjamin and Martin Crimp and includes facsimile reproductions of pages from the manuscript and Benjamin’s sketches, and a photograph of Benjamin, Crimp and directors Daniel Jeanneteau and Marie-Christine Soma in rehearsal at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. ‘Benjamin proves with this taut, sharp miniature that he is the finest opera composer of today…a work of depth of feeling, humanistic artistry and expressive rigor…a drama that is miraculously condensed.’ Süddeutsche Zeitung (Reinhard J. Brembeck) 9 July 2023 ‘…spare, haunting, immediate…a fable of loss and anguish for our times… The whole has the slick perfection of a piece crafted specifically for exceptional performers…the score [is] deft and restrained, its occasional outbursts of passion all the more intense for the careful control of the rest…There is a ritualistic slowness to the movement, resembling an underwater memory or the trance-like dullness of bereavement…For Zabelle’s enchanted garden, video artist Hicham Berrada has created an ambivalent scene of blossoming chemical reactions — toxic and vibrant, sinister and fascinating…It is fiendishly clever…. [the opera] tackles huge subjects with daring economy of means…Its impact is unsettling...For all its beguiling beauty, its moments of dark wit and bitter social observation, Picture remains a voyage beyond all comfort zones.’ Financial Times (Shirley Apthorp) 7 July 2023 / Date parution : 2023-10-31/ Répertoire / Choeur et Orchestre

Kantate zum 22. Sonntag nach Trinitatis. Par BACH JOHANN SEBASTIAN. In der Kantate Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht hat Bach ein Höchstmaß an Ausdrucksstärke mit geringen vokalen Mitteln [Solotenor, nur der Schlusschoral vierstimmig] geschaffen. Die drei letzten Sätze stammen aus einem früheren, verschollenen Werk Bachs, vermutlich einer Passion. Gleichzeitig scheinen diese Sätze vorauszuweisen auf Bachs Matthäus-Passion, die kurz nach dieser Kantate, zum Karfreitag des Jahres 1727 entstanden ist: Der Text 'Erbarme dich' findet sich dort ebenso wie die Choralstrophe 'Bin ich gleich von dir gewichen' an zentraler Stelle wieder./ Répertoire / Choeur et Orchestre

Par SCHUMANN ROBERT. Celui qui a tenté de composer un Latin masse dans le milieu du XIXe siècle avait rivaliser avec les grands modèles et techniques de composition traditionnelle. La messe en si mineur Bach et la Missa solemnis de Beethoven, mais même sa antérieure Messe en ut majeur (interprétée par Schumann) est parmi les oeuvres clés d'une grande tradition de masse à la réception du romantisme élevé. Pas à la différence de Schubert et plus tard Bruckner avant, Messe de Schumann en ut mineur trop est lié par la tradition, mais trouve sa formulation très propre de la ' Ordinarium Missae ', les traits caractéristiques qui pointent vers le style fin du compositeur./ Répertoire / Choeur et Orchestre

Par VITALI GIOVANNI BATTISTA. / Date parution : 2023-07-31/ Répertoire / Choeur et Orchestre