A program that honours American vocal music from the 20th and 21st centuries, with emblematic composers from that country’s great choral tradition. Whether it’s Barber – and his famous Agnus Dei, but also his The Reincarnations, a cycle of songs based on Irish poems – Copland – a major figure of his generation, and author of an important body of choral works – or more recently Eric Whitacre, a young composer whose reputation has long spread beyond the borders of the United States.
To accompany this musical program, Quentin Bisch has imagined a cycle of four fragrances that lead the audience from dusk to dawn.
Une nuit américaine
Olfactory concert
Aaron Copland
Four motets
Morton Feldman
Christian Wolff in Cambridge
Eric Whitacre
Lux aurumque & Sleep
Morten Lauridsen
O Magnum Mysterium
Samuel Barber
Reincarnations & Let down the Bars O Death & To be sung on the water
Steven Stucky
Whispers
Les Métaboles (16 to 24 singers)
Léo Warynski, direction