Herald AV Publications

HAVPCD170 – Marcel Dupré: Les Vêpres de la Vierge Op. 18

	Disk Title	Marcel Dupré: Les Vêpres de la Vierge Op. 18
		Vespers of Our Lady : 15 antiphons and versets
	Soloists	Philippe Lefebvre (les grandes-orgues de Notre-Dame)
		David Hill (orgue de chœ′ur
	Choir	Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge
	Conductor	Mary Berry
	Location	The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris
	Date Recorded	February 1994
	Audio Tracks	33

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…

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