Honegger: Le Roi David Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande & Daniel Reuss

• Arthur Honegger (1955): Le Roi David, H 37, Part. 1:
• 1 Introduction 02:11
• 2 Cantique du berger David 01:36
• 3 Psaume « Loué soit le Seigneur » 02:21
• 4 Chant de victoire 00:15
• 5 Cortège 02:04
• 6 Psaume « Ne crains rien » 01:43
• 7 Psaume « Ah ! si j’avais des ailes de colombe » 03:15
• 8 Psaume "Cantique des Prophètes" 01:28
• 9 Psaume « Pitié de moi, mon Dieu » 02:23
• 10 Le Camp de Saül 02:04
• 11 Psaume « L’éternel est ma lumière infinie » 01:39
• 12 Incantation « La Pythonisse » 02:56
• 13 Marche des Philistins 01:22
• 14 Lamentations de Guilboa 05:10
• Le Roi David, H 37, Part. 2:
• 15 Cantique de fête 01:18
• 16 La Danse devant l’arche 11:58
• Le Roi David, H 37, Part. 3:
• 17 Cantique « De mon coeur jaillit un cantique » 01:28
• 18 Chant de la servante 01:54
• 19 Psaume de pénitence 02:09
• 20 Psaume « Je fus conçu dans le péché » 04:32
• 21 Psaume « Je lève mes regards vers la montagne » 01:31
• 22 La Chanson d’Ephraïm 01:14
• 23 Marche des Hébreux 02:43
• 24 Psaume « Je t’aimerai, Seigneur, d’un amour tendre » 02:55
• 25 Psaume « Dans cet effroi » 01:21
• 26 Couronnement de Salomon 02:05
• 27 Mort de David 05:47
• Total Runtime 01:11:22

Info for Honegger: Le Roi David

With Le Roi David, written when he was less than 30 years old, Honegger produced one of his first great masterpieces. In 27 numbers overflowing with astonishing musical invention, the oratorio brilliantly recreates a distant biblical past in a resolutely modern language. It enjoyed immediate and lasting popular success.

Christophe Balissat, narrator
Athena Poullos, the witch
Lucie Chartin, soprano
Marianne Beate Kielland, mezzo-soprano
Thomas Walker, tenor
Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Daniel Reuss, conductor

Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne
Founded by Michel Corboz in 1961, the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne is made up of vocal and musical personalities selected by its conductors. The Ensemble consists of a core of young professionals which can be supplemented by other choral singers of a high standard and young singing students, according to the nature of the work being performed. It tackles an extremely wide repertory that covers the history of music from the early Baroque (Monteverdi, Carissimi) to the twenty-first century (Poulenc, Honegger, Frank Martin, Schnittke, etc.).

The EVL is a regular and enthusiastically acclaimed guest in Switzerland and abroad. It performs at La Folle Journée in the Pays de la Loire, Nantes, Bilbao and Tokyo, and in many Swiss and foreign festivals and concert seasons. In addition to its guest appearances with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, it collaborates with the Sinfonietta de Lausanne, the Quatuor Sine Nomine, Les Cornets Noirs, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Sinfonia Varsovia.

Its discography, released on the Erato, Cascavelle, Aria Music, Avex and Mirare labels, has earned it a worldwide reputation. Some thirty of these recordings have won awards, among them the Mozart Requiem which received a ‘Choc du Monde de la Musique’ in 1999, the Fauré Requiem (‘Choc’ of the year 2007 in Le Monde de la Musique) and the Gounod Requiem (‘Choc’ Classica 2011).

The Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne receives support from the État de Vaud, the Ville de Lausanne, the Loterie Romande, the Fondation Leenaards, the Fondation Marcel Regamey, the Fondation Fern Mo at, the Fondation Sandoz, the Société Académique Vaudoise, fondation Pittet and the Association des Amis de l’EVL.

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Founded in 1918 by Ernest Ansermet, who remained its titular conductor until 1967, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande comprises 112 permanent musicians. It gives subscription concerts in Geneva and Lausanne, the symphony concerts of the City of Geneva and the annual UN concert, and plays for the operatic performances at the Grand éâtre de Genève.

Its Artistic and Music Director is the British conductor Jonathan Nott. The Principal Guest Conductor is the Japanese maestro Kazuki Yamada.

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande has enjoyed a worldwide reputation under its founding conductor and its successive music directors (Paul Kletzki 1967-70, Wolfgang Sawallisch 1970-80, Horst Stein 1980-85, Armin Jordan 1985-97, Fabio Luisi 1997-2002, Pinchas Steinberg 2002-05, Marek Janowski 2005-12, Neeme Järvi 2012- 15). It has always made an active contribution to the history of music by discovering or championing contemporary composers: works by Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Frank Martin, Benjamin Britten, Heinz Holliger, Peter Eötvös, James MacMillan, Pascal Dusapin and Michael Jarrell have been premiered by the OSR in Geneva. One of its most important missions is still to support the creation of new orchestral music, particularly by Swiss composers. The OSR is the partner of Pro Helvetia for the ‘Swiss Works’ project until 2017.

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande has worked in close collaboration with what is now Radio Télévision Suisse since its earliest days, and soon appeared in radio broadcasts heard by millions of listeners all over the world. It further consolidated its presence on the international musical scene thanks to a partnership with Decca that gave rise to many legendary recordings. e OSR currently makes two or three recordings each season in partnership with PentaTone.

The international tours of the OSR take it to prestigious concert halls in Europe (Berlin, London, Vienna, Salzburg, Paris, Amsterdam), Asia (Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing) and the great cities of the American continent (Boston, New York, San Francisco, Washington, São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Montevideo).

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande receives support from the Canton and City of Geneva, Radio Télévision Suisse, its friends associations and numerous sponsors and patrons. It also benefits from the support of the Canton of Vaud for the concerts it gives in Lausanne.

Daniel Reuss
(born in 1961) studied with Barend Schuurman at the Rotterdam Conservatory. In 1990 he became director of Cappella Amsterdam, which he turned into a full-time professional ensemble that is now one of the most sought-after in the Netherlands. From 2008 until 2013 he was also the artistic director and principal conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. In 2010 he was nominated for a ‘Best Choral Performance’ Grammy for the CD he made with the two choirs together (Frank Martin’s Golgotha). The two ensembles also collaborated on a recording of Poulenc’s Stabat Mater and Sept Répons de Ténèbres, released by Harmonia Mundi in 2014. From 2003 until 2006 he was principal conductor of the RIAS Kammerchor in Berlin, with which he recorded a number of successful CDs. Their CD of works by Martin and Messiaen (released by Harmonia Mundi) won both a Diapason d’Or of the Year for 2004 and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Their recordings of Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Martin’s Le Vin herbé and Handel’s Solomon also received critical acclaim.

In the summer of 2006, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, Daniel Reuss taught and conducted at the Lucerne Festival Academy.

In February 2007 Reuss made his debut with English National Opera in Handel’s Agrippina. In 2008 he conducted Sasha Waltz’s production of Dido and Aeneas at La Monnaie in Brussels. Daniel Reuss has been invited to conduct chamber orchestras and choirs throughout Europe. Among these may be mentioned the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, MusikFabrik, Scharoun Ensemble, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Collegium Vocale Gent and the Chœur de Chambre Accentus. September 2014 saw the release of the CD ‘Warum’, choral works of Brahms sung by Cappella Amsterdam. is won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik early in 2015. Daniel Reuss has been principal conductor and artistic director of the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne since 2015.

Booklet for Honegger: Le Roi David