Since 2016, each holiday season, Bernard Labadie directs The way to Christmas at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec, a sort of French version of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Cambridge, which the founding conductor of Les Violons du Roy had the chance to attend in 2013.
The idea of immortalizing everything on record was almost self-evident. It is with this in mind that the choristers of the Chapelle de Québec gathered at the Salle Raoul-Jobin in the middle of August, last summer, with the contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, the harpist Valérie Milot and the organist Richard Paré.
If the musical tracks are offered on CD, the digital version also includes, at your choice, texts read in French by Yves Jacques or in English by Colin Fox. We go from the Gospel of Luc to Alphonse Daudet, passing through Saint Augustin, Baudelaire and Rimbaud.
It’s a candy record to listen to by the fireplace. The choice of pieces (and texts) immediately immerses us in a sweet atmosphere that smacks of the Christmases of our childhood.
Bernard Labadie draws from both a local and European repertoire. We find the hymns sung in our churches since time immemorial, including The Angels in our countryside, Here shepherds, He was born the divine child and Beautiful star that I adore, in arrangements more or less known by Ernest Gagnon, Raymond Daveluy, Maurice Dela or even Bernard Labadie.
Great idea to include the magnificent and too little known Souls of the righteous, from Mgr Elzéar Fortier, former student of Nadia Boulanger in Paris. And the icing on the cake (or the log!): An original composition by François Dompierre on a text by Denys Arcand!
To underline the British origin of the Christmas pathhymns arranged or composed by Vaughan Williams, Britten and others have also been added. On the German side, Michael Prætorius and Schubert are in the spotlight, but also Pachelbel with the choral Vom Himmel hoch played on the Casavant organ by Richard Paré, which allows you to hear the interesting playing of Zimbelstern (sort of carillon installed in the organ).
The choir sings with warmth, with beauty. We would ask for more!
Classic
The way to Christmas
La Chapelle de Québec and Bernard Labadie
ATMA Classic