THE ANGELS

projets-artistiques

Concert

It was only a few months before his death that Jonathan Harvey completed his final work, The Plain Songs for Peace and Light - thus testifying, despite a constant commitment to the most futuristic technology, to a fidelity to a cappella vocal writing, to which he always returned. Speaking of I love the Lord, written 36 years earlier, he already evokes the deep imprint left on him by listening to the choral liturgy, week after week.

Around Harvey, it is indeed the splendid tradition of English choirs that this concert brings to life. From Winchester to the refectory of the monks of Royaumont, the Gothic walls of the abbeys resound with polyphonic music, sumptuous and magnified by the acoustics. The dialogue of the texts responds to the sound echoes: In The Annunciation, Harvey takes up entirely the first stanza of Palestrina's Stabat Mater, whose text sublimates the pain of the mother of Jesus - thus completing the cycle of the birth and death of Christ as seen by her. To the humility and anguish of the penitent, expressed by the painful dissonances of Byrd's Ave verum, responds the serenity of the believer, which Harvey expresses through the stability of a perfect chord. Harvey’s and Purcell’s symmetrical Remember also calls for the reactivation of the prodigious sound memories that continue to haunt Anglican cathedrals.

Co-production : La Fondation Royaumont (as part of the Métaboles 2019-2021 residency) and La Fondation Bettencourt-Schueller

THE ANGELS


William Byrd - Ave verum 
Benjamin Britten - A Hymn to the Virgin
Jonathan Harvey
I love the Lord, pour double chœur a cappella
Plain Songs for Peace and Light, pour chœur a cappella
Come Holy Ghost, pour chœur a cappella
G. P. da Palestrina - Stabat Mater pour double chœur 
Jonathan Harvey
The annunciation
Benjamin Britten - Chorale After an old French Carol

Henry Purcell - Remember not Lord, our offenses 
Jonathan Harvey
Remember, O Lord
- The Angels pour double chœur a cappella 


Les Métaboles (16 singers)
Léo Warynski, direction

 

In the press...

So many angels came this day

ConcertClassic - Laurent Bury
 - The Angels
29/09/2023

The Metaboles hold the angels above the Musée d’Orsay

Resmusica - Patrick Jézéquel
 - The Angels
28/09/2023

...singers freed from tension and even more radiant...

Diapason - Pierre Rigaudière
 - The Angels au Festival de Royaumont
17/09/2019

For sale on the website...

The Angels

New Metaboles album

Recorded by France Musique in Royaumont on September 7, 20219

En savoir plus...
2023

September

Tuesday, September 26 2023 - 12:30 amThe AngelsMusée d'Orsay - Auditorium

 

The Angels is the 4th album of the Métaboles. The program combines Jonathan Harvey, a great contemporary English composer, with other illustrious vocal composers.

April

Monday, April 10 2023 - 4:00 pmThe AngelsFestival de Pâques de Colmar

The Angels is the 4th album of the Métaboles. the program combines Jonathan Harvey, a great contemporary English composer, with other illustrious vocal composers.

2022

April

Thursday, April 14, 2022 - 8:30 pmThe AngelsFestival de musique sacrée de Perpignan

 

The Angels immerses the listener in the twists and turns of spiritual music. The works of Purcell, Byrd and Palestrina, masters of 17th century polyphonic music, resonate with those of Harvey, a major figure in contemporary music

2021

August

Sunday, August 22 2021 - 3 pmThe AngelsFestival de La Chaise Dieu

The Angels is the 4th album of the Métaboles. the program combines Jonathan Harvey, a great contemporary English composer, with other illustrious vocal composers.

Reservation here

March

Thursday, March 25 2021 - 8h30 pmThe AngelsNotre-Dame-du-Liban - Paris

The Angels, immerses the listener in the twists and turns of spiritual music. The works of Purcell, Byrd and Palestrina resonate with those of Harvey, a major figure in contemporary music. Under the leadership of Léo Warynski, les Métaboles revive the splendid tradition of English choirs: from Winchester to the refectory of the monks of Royaumont, where the album was recorded, the Gothic walls of the abbeys welcome sumptuous music, magnified by the acoustics. .

2019

September

Saturday, September 7, 2019 - 8:45 pmThe AngelsAbbaye de Royaumont - Asnières-sur-Oise

The Angels - Tribute to Jonathan Harvey

William Byrd - Ave verum
Jonathan Harvey - I love the Lord, pour double chœur a cappella
Plain Songs for Peace and Light, pour chœur a cappella
Come Holy Ghost, pour chœur a cappella
G. P. da Palestrina - Stabat Mater for double a cappella choir
Jonathan Harvey - The annunciation
The Angels pour double chœur a cappella
Henry Purcell - Remember not Lord, our offenses
Jonathan Harvey - Remember, O Lord
Jack Sheen - new work, for spatialized choir, world premiere, commissioned by the Royaumont Foundation

More information here