Ludus Verbalis vol. II

Description

Works by Britten, Hindemith, Lawson, Martin, Martinu, Poulenc & Ravel Ensemble Aedes, dir. Mathieu Romano In this second volume of secular music, the vocal ensemble Aedes continues its exploration of the a cappella choral repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries. Following the first recording (Ludus Verbalis, Eloquens EL1128), we have selected seven cycles where the word, its sound, and the space of play and imagination it evokes are at the heart of musical creation. Eclecticism is thus once again the order of the day: alongside William Butler Yeats, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Guillaume Apollinaire, we find William Shakespeare and Paul Éluard, as well as anonymous texts handed down by peoples and traditions, from medieval England or Moravian folklore, and a cycle whose writer is none other than the composer himself. This disc also illustrates how a country's literary culture and tradition can shape, inspire, influence, and sometimes even impose a mode of musical and vocal writing, especially when the composer appropriates a language that is not their own. Sacred texts, like secular ones, are treated here in the manner of madrigals depicting human passions. This cycle foreshadows the final two volumes that will complete this series.