Villard & Martin: Doubles messes a cappella Académie Vocale de Suisse Romande, Renaud Bouvier & Dominique Tille

• Valentin Villard (b. 1985): Messe à six voix, Op. 44:
• 1 Villard: Messe à six voix, Op. 44: I. Kyrie 04:58
• 2 Villard: Messe à six voix, Op. 44: II. Gloria 07:59
• 3 Villard: Messe à six voix, Op. 44: III. Credo 09:46
• 4 Villard: Messe à six voix, Op. 44: IV. Sanctus 02:48
• 5 Villard: Messe à six voix, Op. 44: V. Benedictus 02:57
• 6 Villard: Messe à six voix, Op. 44: VI. Agnus Dei 05:49
• Frank Martin (1890 - 1974): Messe pour double Choeur a cappella:
• 7 Martin: Messe pour double Choeur a cappella: I. Kyrie 04:44
• 8 Martin: Messe pour double Choeur a cappella: II. Gloria 05:08
• 9 Martin: Messe pour double Choeur a cappella: III. Credo 06:00
• 10 Martin: Messe pour double Choeur a cappella: IV. Sanctus 04:11
• 11 Martin: Messe pour double Choeur a cappella: V. Agnus Dei 04:29
• Total Runtime 58:49

Info for Villard & Martin: Doubles messes a cappella

Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir a cappella is one of the repertoire’s most widely performed monuments, and Valentin Villard’s Mass for six voices could well follow in its footsteps. Although 90 years separate these two works, there is an evident filiation between Frank Martin and Valentin Villard. Both composers develop their own harmonic language based on contemporary practices, seek lines of great vocality and explore the orchestral dimension of juxtaposing human voices. Furthermore, both put their writing to the service of an expression of interiority devoid of affectation, with total sincerity and the same ethical and artistic aim. ...

Académie Vocale de Suisse Romande
Renaud Bouvier, direction
Dominique Tille, direction

Académie Vocale de Suisse Romande (AVSR)
is a professional chamber choir that welcomes professional singers or music students from the whole of the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Renaud Bouvier and Dominique Tille, the choir’s source of inspiration and artistic directors, created the ensemble in August 2009. The choir is open to singers capable of assuming a particular function in balancing and fusing the choir’s vocal ranges. Depending on the project, this quest for alchemy enables the ensemble to obtain a rich palette of vocal colours, thanks to characteristic individual timbres.

The AVSR performs a vast repertoire, but its primary mission is to perform choral music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Such music is rarely presented at a professional level in the Romandie, which is why the ensemble prioritises recent works and premieres.

The AVSR conceives its projects as experiences to be shared on multiple levels and combines the needs of interpretation with a lively concert form. Through its productions, the choir intends to put works into a historical perspective, engage a dialogue between the composers and their time, relate music to chosen locations or perform in unusual venues. The AVSR is recognised as a bold and dynamic professional ensemble that regularly cooperates with the leading actors of the cultural scene.

One of the particularities of the AVSR is its two-head- ed artistic management. The two conductors share the same vision of developing a connection with the voice and choral music for both the public and the singers. They also believe in the emotional potential of the human voice that serves the repertoire and the composers who enrich it.

In 2012, the AVSR’s first recording (Liszt’s Sonata in B minor and Missa Choralis, with organist Benjamin Righetti) was rewarded by the Académie du disque lyrique in Paris with the Hector Berlioz Prize for the best recording of sacred music.

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