Ensemble la Sportelle - Lux (2023) Hi-Res

Just as great painters like Rembrandt or Monet chose light as the real subject of their painting, composers from the Renaissance to the present day have appropriated this impalpable and so essential material. Placing it at the center of their musical language, the composers of this program paint very lively, very contrasting landscapes in sound. Their harmonic paths, the thickness of the polyphonies and the brilliance of the voices create what could be called sonic light, of an incredible variety.
By opening his O Magnum Mysterium with the deep voices, on a text unrolled supplely in B flat minor, Poulenc creates a subdued, mysterious and soft light, to which the lullaby of the angels will respond at the very end of Lux Nova by Whitacre. With Victoria and Vic Nees, the vocal lines, through their lines and their intervals, form veritable beams of light, straight, lively, which underline the harshness of the texts. In the pieces of Bruckner and Elgar, it is the impressive thickness of the harmony that creates a feeling of warm and intense light. Finally, the rhythmic dimension of the pieces greatly contributes to this sensation of light: the permanent internal movement of Lux aeterna by Elgar evokes a mobile, fluid light, whereas in De profundis by Vic Nees, the rhythmic structure built on an unevenness that turns on itself, places us in a dark and closed space.

To serve this very particular dimension of the works, the singers of the Ensemble la Sportelle have sought to develop a whole palette of vocal colors, from the hushed to the scintillating, from the flickering of the flame to the dazzling of the day, with the precious help of their vocal coach Mélanie Moussay.