The Angels Les Metaboles & Léo Warynski

• William Byrd (1539 - 1623):
• 1 Ave verum corpus 04:26
• Jonathan Harvey (1939 - 2012):
• 2 I love the Lord 04:50
• 3 Come, Holy Ghost 06:56
• 4 Plainsongs for Peace and Light 07:21
• Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695):
• 5 Remember not, Lord, our offences 02:59
• Jonathan Harvey:
• 6 Remember, O Lord 03:12
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 - 1594):
• 7 Stabat Mater 07:25
• Jonathan Harvey:
• 8 The Annunciation 04:16
• 9 The Angels 04:27
• Total Runtime 45:52

Info for The Angels

Avocal ensemble always brings a portion of mystery to a concert. One knows the layout of an orchestra: the instruments all have their place – who will be in front, who in back – but the distribution of voices seems subject to a changeable and secret logic.

That evening, Les Métaboles made their entrance in the great refectory of Royaumont abbey. They walked onto the stage burning with an almost solar light installed under the alcove for the reader who once accompanied the monks' meals. Four singers took this overhanging position and, like a benediction, let out William Byrd's Ave verum corpus in slow waves onto their silent acolytes.

‘The makings of a miracle,’ a listener might have thought, if he could detach himself from the scene. Then, organised in a double chorus, the whole ensemble took the audience even farther with I Love the Lord, the first piece by Jonathan Harvey. How can one describe this beautiful unanimity, which suddenly becomes unstable on its tilted ground? And this flight, this ascension by a lone, very high voice that reestablishes the certainty in the song? The composer's first foray into the world was masterful, and nothing has altered this impression as the portrait materialises and grows richer.

This album is the memory of a moment of remarkable depth. We sometimes say that remembrance embellishes the past. Here, it rather has the virtue of concentrating it. It is still on Léo Warynski's mind a year later. Les Métaboles' residency at the Fondation Royaumont also included a session with young composers. The ink on their scores was barely dry, and the rehearsals crossed over one another. It was demanding work, but it also reinforced the group's cohesiveness. ‘I came out of the brief time I keep to myself before going on stage, and I saw them, in a circle, concentrating their energy. This had never happened.’

The programme was indeed a heavy one to bear. Sixteen singers are the minimum in this repertoire, as this sometimes represents the number of different voices written in the score. Everyone is thus a soloist. The task of ensuring clarity, transparency and intensity without weightiness falls to them, while we the audience receive the rich experience of hearing all the timbres of these individual voices emerge and disappear in the tight weave of the group.

Les Metaboles
Leo Warynski, direction

Léo Warynski
Born in 1982, Léo Warynski trained in orchestral conducting with François-Xavier Roth at the Conservatoire de Paris, and Pierre Cao (Arsys Bourogne vocal ensemble). This versatile leader conducts symphonies, lyrical works and vocal pieces, working with prestigious ensembles and orchestras: Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire de Paris, Remix Ensemble, Modern Ensemble, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and the Accentus choir.

Léo Warynski is the art director of Les Métaboles, the vocal ensemble he founded in 2010. In 2014, he was also appointed musical director of Multilatérale, an instrumental ensemble focused on new music. During the 2018 season, he is directing the Orchestre Régional de Normandie, the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen, Yann Robin’s new Papillon Noir opera at La Criée in Marseille, Ondrej Adamek’s Steven Stones opera at the Aix-en-Provence festival, and the French premiere of Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels with the Orchestra Philharmonique de Strasbourg at Festival Musica and the Philharmonie de Paris.

Booklet for The Angels