GMCD 7239 You can order this CD in our E-Shop under Choral Music/The Vasari Singers Reviews ***Sound Clips***	La France Au Calvaire  choir & organ by Marcel Dupré with The Vasari Singers conducted by Jeremy Backhouse Organ - Jeremy Filsell  www.jeremyfilsell.com Helen Neeves soprano (La Récitante & Sainte-Clothilde) Catherine Denley alto (La France) Matthew Beale tenor (Le Récitant) Colin Campbell baritone (Saint-Denis & La Voix du Christ)

Contents:

DDD 78:25 Recorded: Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Nr. Reading, Berkshire 22–24 February 2002

This CD brings together Dupré’s largest and most startlingly original choral work – his oratorio La France au Calvaire – and smaller motets by three of his most illustrious pupils: Jehan Alain, Olivier Messiaen, and Jean Langlais.

Born on 15 February 1907, Langlais studied at the Institute for Blind Youth and laterentered the Paris Conservatoire, studying organ under Dupré; he won a premier prix inorgan in 1930. After more studies and prizes he took up an appointment, following César Franck and Tournemire, as organist of Sainte Clotilde church in Paris. He made his first tour to the USA in 1952 and many of his works were written for subsequent visits across the Atlantic and for contacts made there. The Festival Alleluia, written in 1971, is scored for choir and organ, with optional trumpets and timpani. The motet is formed of contrasting sections, dramatically juxtaposing moments of rhythmic drive with passages of sublime beauty and stillness. It sets just the one word "Alleluia".

Jehan Alain, the eldest son of a famous French family of musicians, studied with Dupré after entering the Paris Conservatoire in 1927, receiving the premier prix for organ in 1939. Much of his twelve-year stay there was taken with composition and in his short life (he was killed in action in 1940 aged only 29), Alain wrote much for his own instruments of organ and piano. Of composition Alain wrote that "music is created to translate the states of the soul at some time, some moment, above all, the evolution of a soul state. What matters in music is perhaps less charm than mystery". This simple motet is an adaptation by his sister, the renowned organist Marie-Claire Alain.

Entering the Paris Conservatoire in 1919, Olivier Messiaen studied a broad range of music topics, including composition with Paul Dukas and improvisation and organ with Marcel Dupré. He went on to become perhaps one of the most original compositional voices of the twentieth century, and in this exquisite Communion motet, written in 1937 and his only work for liturgical performance, Messiaen displays his highly individual approach to harmonic colour, melody and rhythm.

"I do not think of myself as a composer…I have specialised in the organ, and I do not have the reputation that composers have." Marcel Dupré made this admission in 1942, at the height of his career, and one cannot but wonder if it may have been tinged with regret. The teachers who guided him in his formative years were sure that his technical equipment and creative gifts would qualify him to become either a ‘real’ composer, or a concert pianist, or both.
Born in Rouen in 1886, Dupré grew up as the only child in an extended household which Emmanuel Bondeville described as ‘a veritable temple of music’. Four of the five adult residents were musicians and music-teachers: Marcel’s father was an organist (later to become titulaire of one of the finest instruments in France, at Saint-Ouen, Rouen), and his mother was a cellist, who had been taught by a friend of Mendelssohn; his aunt gave singing lessons, and his grandfather was a retired opera-singer (Marcel was named after one of his favourite roles, in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots). The garden behind the house gradually disappeared beneath a music-room of ever-increasing dimensions: in its final form (large enough to accommodate the 100 singers of the choral society which Dupré père founded in 1897) it was inaugurated on Dupré’s 15th birthday with a performance of a 30-minute cantata which he had composed for the occasion. He acted as accompanist to the chorus (‘L’Accord Parfait’) for many years, and so became familiar, in his own home, with three centuries of choral music, from Bach to Fauré and Debussy, as well as a wide range of chamber music and song. As a piano student at the Paris Conservatoire, he learnt all the standard piano repertoire (much of it from memory), and won his premier prix in 1905 at the age of 19. His composition studies in the class of Widor were rewarded with an outstanding premier prix in Fugue in 1909, and then by the highest accolade of all, the Premier Grand Prix de Rome. In 1913 his cantata Faust et Helène was overshadowed by the wonderful setting of the same libretto by 19-year-old Lili Boulanger, who so tragically died in 1918. But Dupré finally won the prize in July 1914, a few weeks before the outbreak of the First World War.
To Dupré these achievements were almost incidental. He was only a few days old when his father’s teacher Alexandre Guilmant inspected the cradle and pronounced, ‘He will be an organist’, and to be an organist was his dream. The organ installed in the family musicroom in 1896 became an object of obsessive fascination to le petit prodige (as the organet builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll used to call him). When he was 11 Dupré was appointed organist of Saint-Vivien in Rouen, and within ten years he had won his premier prix at the Conservatoire, and was acting as Widor’s Assistant at Saint-Sulpice in Paris. After the War he rapidly established his reputation as a concert organist, following his performance from memory of the complete organ works of Bach. International success came first in England, and then in America, where he spent much of the early 1920s. In 1926 he was appointed Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire, where he remained for 30 years (including two as Director), training all the leading French organists of two generations. In 1934 Widor retired from Saint-Sulpice at the age of 89, and Dupré at last became titulaire in his own right - a post which he held until the day of his death on Whit Sunday 1971.
Dupré’s major choral works were both written in response to the ravages inflicted on the people of France by the two World Wars. Declared unfit for military service in 1914 (as a result of childhood surgery on the collarbone), he worked in a military hospital for two years; after being relieved of his duties in 1916 he took refuge in composition, and the next year he had completed De Profundis, a large-scale setting of Psalm 130 dedicated to les soldats morts pour la patrie. [The Vasari Singers gave the UK premiere of this work in 2001 and have since received critical acclaim for their recording of the same work released by Guild Music in May 2001.]
Thirty years after De Profundis, the devastation of Rouen in the Second World War inspired Dupré to write another large-scale choral work: the result was the oratorio La France au Calvaire, which was finally completed in time for the joint celebration of the restoration of Rouen Cathedral and the 500th anniversary of the official pardon of Joan of Arc, in 1956. The curious libretto (written by another native of Rouen, the poet René Herval) begins with a Prologue, in which the allegorical figure of La France kneels at the foot of the Cross, and begs the dying Christ to forgive her countrymen their sins, as he forgave the repentant thief. In support of her plea, the six succeeding movements present a procession of French saints through the ages: St Denis, taunted and beheaded by howling barbarians; the devout St Clotilde; St Louis, personifying the ideal of a mediaeval Christian ruler; Joan of Arc; St Vincent-de-Paul, the model of charity; and St Teresa of Lisieux, the contemporary model of holiness and humility. The Finale returns to Calvary, where La France repeats her prayer of the Prologue and is answered by Christ on the Cross.

I: Prologue (Le Récitant/La France)

From the darkness a bleak vision is conjured by the male Narrator: Calvary - Christ nailed to the Cross on the verge of death. A blazing organ passage looks forward to a time when the Judge shall appear in terror and glory. Returning to the foot of the Cross, a veiled woman with drawn face appears and falls to her knees. This is France who pleads with Christ to show mercy on her people: many have gone astray, many turned from sin to the haven of Jesus’ love, and a few faithful servants led their lives purely by God’s divine law. The lives of these saints are celebrated in the succeeding movements.

II: Saint-Denis (Le Récitant/Saint-Denis/Les Barbares/Les Chrétiennes)

The chorus of Barbarians cry for Saint-Denis (the Patron Saint of France) to be put to death by the sword for his crimes against Caesar. Saint-Denis proclaims the everlasting power of God over all earthly rulers. As the cries for his death increase, Saint-Denis prays for courage. The Barbarians’ cries intensify yet further. “The axe is raised – strike me, I beg you!” pleads Saint-Denis. In a brief moment peace, a female chorus of Christians pray that Saint-Denis be saved and they be executed in his place. However, the axe is raised once more and Saint-Denis is slain. The Narrator tells of the miraculous transformation from bloody martyr to shining apparition. In rich vein, the chorus sing of the new dawn that the death of Christ will bring.

III: Sainte-Clotilde (Sainte-Clotilde)

Clotilde was a Frankish Queen and wife of the ruthless King Clovis, whom she eventually converted to Christianity, persuading him to be baptised at Rheims. After the death of her husband, her sons struggled against each other for power and she retired to an abbey where her reputation for piety and good works continued undimmed. In this brief movement, Clotilde sings of her enthusiasm and strength which can break swords, and yet her softness, and of her being the person through whom the alliance between France and God was crafted.

IV: Saint-Louis (Le Récitant/chorus)

The Narrator sets the scene by saying that on the Cross Jesus Himself found succour by the example set by Louis IX, King of France, later canonised as Saint-Louis. The chorus echo the sentiments and, joined by the Narrator, recall the abiding qualities of peace and justice which he exhibited during his attempts to bring peace to France and other regions. Again the Narrator sings of Louis’ powerful presence in restoring Europe to peace during the mid-13^th century and the male chorus, later joined by full chorus, sing of his mighty, but just, arm in battle, fighting under the banner of Christ. The spacious closing chorus rejoices in his example and that of all the saints gathered round the throne of God.

V: Jeanne d’Arc (La Récitante/Les Armées/Le Peuple de France)

The female Narrator tells how armies were inspired by God’s power, vested in Joan of Arc when on the battlefield she would cry: “Strike the enemy: God is on our side!”. The male chorus (The Armies) give praise to Joan; they are joined by the entire People of France who call on her purity and passion to answer their prayers. Again the men of The Armies call for the strength of her leadership and courage in battle. Finally, the People of France give thanks, conjuring a gloriously triumphant picture of victory, guided by the powers of the archangels.

VI: Saint-Vincent de Paul (Les Misérables/Le Récitant/Choeur céleste)

From the pomp of the closing passage of the previous movement, the picture moves to a bleak landscape where famine, disease, terror and despair wrack the people. A child calls to the mother that he is cold, but the mother has nothing to cover him and in an impassioned cry calls only for death. In a faster section the chorus curses those who bring torture, hatred and evil on others. At a more measured pace, the choir and Narrator re-emphasise that love will win the day and bring salvation to the abused, poor, hungry and oppressed. The movement closes with the Narrator giving thanks to the great acts of charity of Vincent de Paul and prays that his influence will prevail over evil. An ethereal Heavenly Choir takes up the theme.

VII: Sainte-Thérèse (La Récitante/chorus)

Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux was canonised in 1925 and joined Jeanne d’Arc as patroness of France in 1947. In her brief life - she died of tuberculosis in 1897 aged only twenty-four - she established a reputation for holiness, spiritual radiance and mysticism. In this movement of calm and beauty, a female chorus joins Narrator.

VIII: Final (La France/La Voix du Christ/chorus)

The scene returns to Calvary where France repeats the prayer of the opening movement. She is joined by the faithful people of France (double choir), whose intonation of the Easter Acclamation Christus vincit explodes into, and later mingles with, a contrapuntal tour-de-force in the form of a double fugue: Gloria in excelsis Deo!  Christ gently replies from the Cross; in words paraphrased from the Beatitudes, he grants forgiveness, ‘because your saints, one by one, have embraced suffering without asking anything in return….’

Page revised Friday May 25 2007