Marie-Hélène Dupard, Groupe vocal Michel Hostettler & Michel Hostettler - Reichel: Trois Psaumes et Quatre Motets (2024) [Hi-Res]

Having long enjoyed friendly relations with the Michel Hostettler Vocal Group, it was natural that this friendship should one day manifest in a common project. We thus jointly planned a concert where the Vocal Group would perform a work composed specifically for it; hence the origin of the Three Psalms.

The prospect of hearing my music sung by an ensemble whose style, ‘colour’, and transparent sonority were well-known to me helped and stimulated me. I searched for a text and, while leafing through the Missal, I was struck by the beauty of the Latin language and the renewal opportunities it offered me. The fragments of the three chosen psalms are like three pictures expressing well-defined states of the soul: the supplicatory prayer in Psalm 102, the contemplation and morning silence in the mountain in Psalm 121, and finally the praises and joy of Psalm 113.

The motets featured on side 2 of the record were inspired by German liturgical texts. Composed for the Marienkantorei of Lemgo, they have long been part of the Michel Hostettler Vocal Group’s repertoire.

Bernard Reichel