Igor Stravinski
Messe
Suite from l’Histoire du soldat

Francis Poulenc
Sept Répons des Ténèbres

Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne
Sinfonietta de Lausanne
Daniel Reuss – conductor
Céline Latour – piano
Félix Froschhammer – violin
Jorge Paiva Neves – clarinet

Two contexts of the World War that inevitably influenced Stravinsky’s creative output, two works that are polar opposites: on the one hand, The Soldier’s Tale in 1917, which, created on neutral ground, marked a minimalist Swiss-Russian collaboration in terms of its instrumentation and heralded the Roaring Twenties to come, from jazz to tango. On the other, a return to faith with his Mass, composed as early as 1944, stripped of ornamentation and drawing its style from the medieval Ars nova. Whether cynical or in search of truth, Stravinsky stands as an important witness to his time whilst in exile.
Premiered posthumously in 1963, Poulenc’s Sept Répons des Ténèbres – composed by a composer who had rediscovered the Catholic faith 25 years earlier – fascinates with its fragmented orchestration and striking contrasts that echo the turmoil of the soul. Fragility and anguish yearn for serenity, for silence, and ultimately for light.
A programme centred on the liberation of the self and the evolution of modern music.