A la vierge Marie
Noriko Fujii, soprano, Rudolf Innig, organ
Arthur Honegger: Trois Psaumes,
Marcel Dupré: Ave Maria, Jean Langlais: A la Vierge Marie,
Jehan Alain: Ave Maria,
Louis Vierne: Les Angélus,
Lili Boulanger: Pie Jesu,
André Jolivet: Messe Pour le Jour de la Paix,
Darius Milhaud: Cinq Prières
Louis Vierne (1870 – 1937) based his work on a spiritual poem by Jehan le Povre Moyne entitled ‘Les Angélus’. The three poems each describe the mood of people at the time of the Angelus ringing and the music tries to convey this.
Lili Boulanger (1893 – 1918), the younger sister of the famous pianist Nadja Boulanger, was the first woman to win the famous French composition prize ‘Prix de Rome’ at the age of just 20. She composed numerous works for choir and voices, but also purely instrumental works. In the last months of her ailing life, she wrote (alongside work on an unfinished opera) her own Requiem Pie Jesu for mezzo-soprano, string quartet, harp and organ (recorded here in a version for organ alone...
Jean Langlais (1907-1991), who had close contacts in America throughout his life, composed a very personal form of the Ave Maria in 1981 for the singer on this CD, Noriko Fujii.
Based on his own text, which freely expands the invocation and request of the liturgical Ave Maria, Jean Langlais wrote a short piece in which the requests are initially sung as if reciting the same melodic phrase, but which is then expanded into a large melodic gesture in the final request. (Dr. Irmlind Capelle)