A Requiem to wake the dead on Le Figaro TV

A suspended moment of grace. Thus appears theAve Verum of Mozart, at the end of the concert led, last November, by the young conductor and violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, at the Royal Chapel of Versailles. Like a final ray of light, crossing the clear stained glass windows of the side stands to rest on the Holy Spirit painted by Jouvenet in the form of a dove, the extremely famous motet, composed in the spring of 1791 by a composer who only had six months left to complete. live, was performed as an encore. Dizzying contrast, after a Requiem whose theatrical force constantly competed with devotion.

Under the broad but always airy beat of the violinist from the Baroque, this score of 46 measures (here repeated twice) breathes in a completely organic way. Distilling its scent of sweet tranquility from the four soloists of the Requiem (a rich idea to use them here as a small choir), up to the combined forces of the Choir and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera, with truly overwhelming evidence. A simplicity in eloquence which says a lot about the musical maturity acquired, in just a few years, by the man we discovered five years ago as an “instrumental revelation” at the Victoires de la Musique Classique… And which carries today the support of many musicians and spectators as conductor.

Unified vocal and orchestral platform

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It must be said that this close collaborator of William Christie and his Arts Florissants, himself co-founder of the Le Consort ensemble, was in particularly good schools. Even if he admitted it himself, a few weeks before setting out to climb this Everest of the Mozart repertoire: « I don’t have much experience when it comes to handling choral masses. But I have a connection to the voice and to omnipresent singing, through my parents, who were both singing teachers. My childhood memories are of always waking up to the sound of voices. I sang myself until I was 14 years, and had the opportunity to direct children’s choirs. As for the Requiemit is a universal work, which touches and upsets us all, and which I have already had the opportunity to approach from the inside by participating as concertmaster in its performance within several ensembles. »

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Of which act. His interpretation of Requiem exudes the same organic conception as that which will govern the execution of theAve Verum in encore. The same desire to give a vision of it on the breath, like a single theatrical line which unfolds its arc of sometimes contradictory emotions from one end to the other, without stopping… Much more than like a succession of pieces of bravery, such as we too often have the impression of. Nothing like that here. Vocal soloists never seem to seek the spotlight for themselves. Even less the one-upmanship. Like Marie Perbost, whose « A hymn befits you » all restraint announces the color from the introit: that of a perfectly homogeneous and unified vocal and orchestral platter. Constantly at the service of music and theatrical discourse.

And this evening has no shortage of theatricality. Whether in this Day of Wrath to the glowing tempi, chained to the Kyrie in a striking effect, or in this A wonderful trumpet screaming with truth, served by the dialogue of deep humanity between the bass Edwin Fardini and the trombone of Aurélie Serre. Without forgetting the preceding clarinet concerto, also dated 1791, here enhanced by the delicate virtuosity and lovely sense of nuance of José-Antonio Salar-Verdu, soloist of the Köln Concerto.