Mathieu Romano

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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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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