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Ensemble Aedes, Les Siècles & Mathieu Romano – Poulenc: Stabat Mater, Litanies à la Vierge noire (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:23 minutes | 676 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
The ensemble Aedes began it’s musical journey with Poulenc, under the impetus of conductor Mathieu Romano. Here, at the head of Les Siècles, Romano returns to the unclassifiable composer to record two of his major works. In the pious contemplation of the Litanies, here performed in the manuscript version, and the orchestral luxuriance of the Stabat Mater, spirituality is expressed through music that is lively, sensitive and even, at times, sensuous. Sculpting out every phrase and note, always at the service of the text, the ensemble and Mathieu Romano confirm their affinity with the composer’s language. As an interlude Mathieu Romano has included a secular piece, O doulx regard, o parler gratieux, by the Renaissance composer Clément Janequin. The boundaries between earthly love and mystical love are thus abolished in favor of pure emotion.
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Les Siècles, Ensemble Aedes, François-Xavier Roth – Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé (Live) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 54:59 minutes | 889 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
‘The arrival of an orchestra like Les Siècles on the harmonia mundi label is entirely logical: ever since it was founded by François-Xavier Roth in 2003, its musicians (mostly belonging to the new generation) have succeeded in placing several centuries of musical creation in perspective by playing the works they tackle on precisely the instruments used at the time of their premiere – without the slightest concession. The result is quite simple dazzling: never, since it was first heard, has Daphnis et Chloé displayed such a shimmering sound, revealing an infinity of details without ever losing sight of the subtle beauty of the most French of the great ‘Ballets Russes’.‘At this moment in the history of music, Ravel raised the French “Impressionist” orchestral style to a sort of apogee – in a sense it is the last great comédie-ballet in the history of French music’ (François-Xavier Roth).
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Le Poème Harmonique, Ensemble Aedes, Vincent Dumestre – Lalande: Majesté (Collection Château de Versailles) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:32 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
In 1682, Versailles became the main residence of Louis XIV and it needed new assistant chapel masters; in the end, the King imposed his choice, and that was Lalande, the King’s favourite, a young man of 26 who would become Versailles’s great composer of religious music. Bringing a new vision of the orchestra after the inflexible Lully, he dared to create completely new musical architectures, with new orchestral combinations that his predecessors never attempted, foregrounding some rarer solo instruments. In this sense, he represents the missing link between Lully and Rameau, the last scion of the French baroque orchestral tradition. For this record, a little stone in the monument to Lalande’s 77 great motets, Vincent Dumestre and his Poème harmonique have chosen to showcase his first sallies in writing for the Chapelle Royale with Ecce nuncfrom 1683 and above all the grandiose Deitatis majestatem from 1681, and the record runs up to the final corrections – Lalande incessantly edited his work – of the Te Deum. This work provides the most striking sonic image of majesty: the Te Deum, composed in 1684, was re-written many times up until the 1720s, the date of the final signed edition. This version, which shows the later development of Lalande’s writing, is also made remarkable because in it the composer has noted the precise duration of each verse! This gives us a precise idea of the metronomical tempos that he used – and what a precious tool for today’s musicians. This album, recorded in public at the Chapelle Royale in Versailles, follows this demanding and unflagging rhythm to within a few dozen seconds.
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Ensemble Aedes, Les Siècles & Mathieu Romano – Stravinsky: Les Noces (1919) – Ravel: Bolero (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:52 minutes | 720 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Stravinsky’s Les Noces went through many metamorphoses. The composer worked on the orchestration of this piece for some ten years, and produced three versions, all of which we have chosen to perform.
Discover here the more intimate 1919 version which we perform with the Dominique Brun dance company. This version, which was set aside because of the technical difficulties posed by the need to synchronise live musicians and mechanical instruments, was nonetheless considered the composer’s favorite, because the best adapted to the prosody and popular spirit of the work. This work is performed with an arrangement of Ravel’s Boléro for five instrumentalists and a 16 singers.
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Ensemble Aedes, Les Siècles, Mathieu Romano – Fauré: Requiem – Poulenc: Figure Humaine – Debussy: 3 Chansons (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:19 minutes | 977 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Fauré’s Requiem (‘funeral lullaby’) written for enjoyment, as the composer put it, has a unique place in history. Its soft, simple and modest poetry conveys moments of gentle contemplation and moving expressiveness which are entrusted to both the choir and the two soloists.
With his Ensemble Aedes and the orchestra Les Siècles, Mathieu Romano is committed to render a Requiem faithful to its first performance. We hear thus the score in its original 1893 orchestration, where the organ plays a great role and where Latin is pronounced in the French way as it used to be. The clearest articulation of the Ensemble Aedes then perfectly fits Éluard’s Figure humaine set to music by Francis Poulenc. We have never heard these sublime poems sung with such intelligibility before!
Finally, the three Songs by Debussy elegantly close the album. Here again, the quality and clarity of the voices are stunning. Artistic director and founder of Ensemble Aedes Mathieu Romano has established himself as a magician of voices in a cappella scores and voices ideally melt with the strings of Les Siècles under his baton.
A 100% French cast in a 100% French music disc for a triple rediscovery. Essential!”
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