Paul Beynet - Contes Mystiques (2024) Hi-Res

Recording made at the Théâtre Impérial – Opéra de Compiègne in June 2023

This French melody program is structured around the little-known cycle of Mystical Tales. Usually, a cycle of melodies or lieder brings together 2 authors: the poet and the composer. For Mystical Tales, it is a collaboration between a poet: Stephan Bordèse (1847-1919) and no less than 12 composers. It is therefore an exciting testimony to teamwork. Augusta Holmès, Edmond Diet, Théodore Dubois, Gabriel Fauré, Charles Lecocq, Charles Lenepveu, Charles-Henri Maréchal, Jules Massenet, Emile Paladilhe, Camille Saint-Saëns, Pauline Viardot and Charles-Marie Widor, all known and recognized: composers , teachers, directors of conservatories or opera institutions, Parisian organists, conductors, singers, etc.

If the melody of Gabriel Fauré En Prière has become a “hit”, the other melodies, just as touching, speak to us of the childhood of Christ and seem inspired by scenes from the apocryphal gospels. To this cycle, we will associate melodies composed on prayers or religious texts by the same composers or by some of their contemporaries.