Composer: Charles-Hubert Gervais
Performer: Olivia Doray, Katalin Szutrely, Cyrille Dubois, Mathias Vidal, David Witczak, Purcell Choir
Orchestra: Orfeo Orchestra
Conductor: György Vashegyi
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Glossa
Catalogue: GCD924013
Release: 2022
Size: 362 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Exaudi Deus orationem meam
01. No. 1, Exaudi, Deus, orationem meam
02. No. 2, Contristatus sum in exercitatione mea
03. No. 3, Cor meum conturbatum est in me
04. No. 4, Quis dabit mihi pennas sicut columbae
05. No. 5, Expectabam eum qui salvum me fecit
06. No. 6, Jacta super Dominum curam tuam
O Filii et Filiae
07. No. 1, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
08. No. 2, Et mane prima sabbati
09. No. 3, Et Maria Magdalene
10. No. 4, In albis sedens Angelus
11. No. 5, Et Joannes Apostolus
12. No. 6, Discipulis adstantibus
13. No. 7, Ut intellexit Didymus
14. No. 8, Vide, Thoma, vide latus
15. No. 9, Beati qui non viderunt
16. No. 10, In hoc festo sanctissimo
Judica me Deus et discerne causam mea
17. No. 1, Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam
18. No. 2, Quia tu es, Deus, fortitudo mea quare me reppulisti
19. No. 3, Emitte lucem tuam et veritatem tuam
20. No. 4, Et introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum
21. No. 5, Confitebor tibi in cithara, Deus, Deus meus
22. No. 6, Spera in Deo
Usquequo Domine
23. No. 1, Usquequo, Domine
24. No. 2, Usquequo exaltabitur inimicus meus
25. No. 3, Illumina oculos meos
26. No. 4, Qui tribulant me
27. No. 5, Exultabit cor meum
Te Deum
28. No. 1, Te Deum laudamus
29. No. 2, Tibi omnes angeli
30. No. 3, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
31. No. 4, Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus
32. No. 5, Te per orbem terrarum
33. No. 6, Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium
34. No. 7, Tu, ad liberandum suscepturus hominem
35. No. 8, Judex crederis esse venturus
36. No. 9, Te ergo quaesumus
37. No. 10, Per singulos dies benedicimus te
38. No. 11, Dignare, Domine, die isto
39. No. 12, In te, Domine, speravi
Amply demonstrating that Charles-Hubert Gervais didn’t just excel in composing operas, Gyorgy Vashegyi turns his attention to the French Baroque composer’s sacred music, with this new disc of Grands Motets, containing five extended and sumptuous psalms and hymns, involving soloists, chorus and orchestra.
Gervais’ relative modern-day anonymity in this genre can to a large extent be placed at the door of historical circumstance: during the end of the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, he was employed by the king’s younger brother Philippe d’Orleans and continued so during d’Orleans Regency. It wasn’t until 1723 that Gervais obtained an official post as one of the four sous-maotres of the Chapelle du Roi. At this point, any motet he wrote went straight into the royal library without publication and has required today’s transcribers to create performing editions.
Tones of celebration, relief (on Louis XVI’s recovery from a nasty illness), solemnity, meditation, a dash of restrained theatricality, bold harmonies and lighter orchestral textures than with Lalande (or Bernier and Campra) provide Vashegyi’s Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra with plenty of scope to demonstrate their collective mastery and experience of the idiom.
Gyrgy Vashegyi was born in Budapest in 1970 and started his musical studies as an instrumentalist: he played the violin, flauto dolce, the oboe (then the baroque oboe) and the harpsichord. At the age 18 he became a student of conducting under Ervin Lukcs at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, obtaining his diploma with distinction in 1993. In 1990 he founded the Purcell Choir in Budapest for a concert performance of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, and one year later the Orfeo Orchestra with which he performed the complete L’Orfeo by Monteverdi for the first time in Hungary. Since then the two ensembles have become Hungary’s leading early music group: their main repertoire ranges from Gesualdo to Haydn and Mozart, but they also perform later compositions.