Fauré - Treize Motets; Messe Basse;
Cinq Cantiques
Ensemble de la chapelle du Quebec;
Bernard Labadie
XXI XXI-CD 2 1670
This disc is a re-release of La Chapelle de Québec’s very first recording from 1989, originally released on the ADES label. Founded in 1985 as the Ensemble vocal Bernard Labadie, it was this ensemble of young professional singers and graduating students that the famous Violons du Roy was originally created to accompany.
This collection features music written by Fauré during his 40 year career as a church musician and includes 13 motets, the Messe basse for women’s voices and five cantiques, including the beloved Cantique de Jean Racine as well as settings of traditional Noëls. Though prolific in the output of sacred vocal music, the composer wrote no music for solo organ. He obviously delighted in incorporating his own modern style into church music, continually creating variations in vocal groupings and innovation in harmonic sonorities. The ensemble handles these cleverly, providing great variety in the voices assigned to solos, duets and trios, proving Labadie to be quite generous in allowing a good number of the individual ensemble members to shine. And shine they do, as well with this relatively modern repertoire as with the Baroque and Classical fare that is their usual focus.
