HAVPCD170 – Marcel Dupré: Les Vêpres de la Vierge Op. 18
HAVPCD170 – Marcel Dupré: Les Vêpres de la Vierge Op. 18 Vespers of Our Lady : 15 antiphons and versets
Marcel Dupré’s Fifteen Antiphons came into being as a set of improvisations played during the celebration of Vespers in Notre-Dame on 15 August 1919. Their true title, Les Vêpres de la Vierge, is also a clue to their true nature: a set of improvisations inserted into the choral liturgy, replacing fifteen items of it. A centuries-old living tradition of such alternation between choir and organ (alternatim) lies behind Dupré’s Op. 18. On that 15 August1919 an Englishman, Claude Johnson, the General Managing Director of Rolls-Royce, was attending Vespers. A man of great vision and sensitivity, he was struck by the beauty of Dupré’s music and wanted to buy a copy of it. On being told that it had been improvised, and therefore not written down, he at once persuaded Dupré to try to recapture his original inspiration and commissioned the set of 15 pieces. They appeared the following year…
