Yves Castagnet: Magnificat Yves Castagnet, Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris & Henri Chalet

• Yves Castagnet (b. 1964): Magnificat:
• 1 Castagnet: Magnificat: I. Magnificat 04:48
• 2 Castagnet: Magnificat: II. Quia respexit 05:00
• 3 Castagnet: Magnificat: III. Quia fecit 02:50
• 4 Castagnet: Magnificat: IV. Et misericordia 03:23
• 5 Castagnet: Magnificat: V. Fecit potentiam 02:49
• 6 Castagnet: Magnificat: VI. Deposuit 03:18
• 7 Castagnet: Magnificat: VII. Esurientes 04:43
• 8 Castagnet: Magnificat: VIII. Suscepit 04:31
• 9 Castagnet: Magnificat: IX. Sicut locutus est 02:40
• 10 Castagnet: Magnificat: X. Gloria patri 08:58
• Psaume XXVI. "Le Seigneur est ma lumière et mon salut":
• 11 Castagnet: Psaume XXVI. "Le Seigneur est ma lumière et mon salut" 05:06
• Psaume XVIII. "Les cieux chantent la gloire de Dieu":
• 12 Castagnet: Psaume XVIII. "Les cieux chantent la gloire de Dieu" 06:29
• Psaume CXV. "Je crois, et je parlerai":
• 13 Castagnet: Psaume CXV. "Je crois, et je parlerai" 05:20
• Total Runtime 59:55

Info for Yves Castagnet: Magnificat

On December 8th 2024, five-and-a-half years after the devastating fire of 2019, the great Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris reopens to the public. Officially marking this ‘rebirth’ is this recording of a new choral setting of the Magnificat by the organist-composer Yves Castagnet. Since 1988 Castagnet has held the post of choir organist at Notre-Dame, a role that also encompasses interpretative coaching for the cathedral’s choir school, La Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris. The Maîtrise embraces five different choral ensembles that offer training and performance opportunities to talented children, teenagers and adults. Conducting the Magnificat is the Maîtrise’s director, Henri Chalet. As he says: “Yves Castagnet’s Magnificat will both pay vibrant homage to Notre-Dame and provide proof of the Maîtrise’s continuing vigour and lustre as it creates a repertoire for the future. Like Maurice Duruflé, Yves Castagnet is a representative of the great French school of organ-playing.” Castagnet himself participates in the recording, made in 2022 in another Paris church, the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde. He accompanies the Maîtrise’s adult choir and four soloists: soprano Thaïs Raï-Westphal, mezzo-soprano Anouk Defontenay, tenor Jordan Mouaïssia and bass Carlos Builes Velez. “The text of the Magnificat has been part of my daily life for more than 30 years,” writes Castagnet. “It appears in the Catholic liturgy for Vespers. Every evening, I played the organ as the Magnificat was sung at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. The Virgin Mary’s own words, sung in a cathedral consecrated to her … How could one not respond to the power and beauty of this text?” Completing the album are three Psalm settings by Castagnet: Psalms 18 and 26, composed in 1996, and Psalm 115, first performed in 2011.

Yves Castagnet, organ
Thais Rai, soprano
Anouk Defontenay, mezzo-soprano
La Maitrise Notre-Dame de Paris
Henri Chalet, conductor

Yves Castagnet
was born in Paris in 1965. He studied organ, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, orchestration and improvisation at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris. He completed his studies with several awards - including a "Premier Prix" in organ.

In 1988 he won the Grand Prix de Chartres in organ interpretation. After that, he began an extensive solo career that brought him concert engagements around the world.

In addition to his work as a concert organist, the liturgical service as "organist titulaire" on the choir organ of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which he has held since 1988, takes up a large part of his artistic work.

Yves Castagnet has already recorded five CDs with works by Marcel Dupré, Louis Vierne, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Franz Liszt, Julius Reubke and the Requiem by Maurice Duruflé together with the choir of Notre Dame in Paris.

Henri Chalet
is Director and principal choir conductor at the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris since 2014, after having worked with Lionel Sow as assistant choir conductor. He graduated in composition and choir conducting from the Paris and Lyon Music Conservatoires and, between 2010 and 2017, he took over the Jeune Choeur de Paris. He succeeded at the musical direction of its founder, Laurence Equilbey, and to Geoffroy Jourdain, whom he was the assistant. Until 2011, he was artistic director of the Saint-Christophe de Javel Ensemble, with which he has made several recordings, including Duruflé’s Requiem and the premiere recording of Yves Castagnet’s Psaumes.

From 2011 to 2013, he has been coaching the choir of the Orchestre de Paris on a regular basis. With the Jeune chœur de Paris, he has recorded with Natalie Dessay, Karine Deshayes, Philippe Cassard, but also with Marie-Nicole Lemieux and the Orchestre national de France or Sabine Devieilhe and Les Ambassadeurs orchestra. With the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris, he conducted or prepared for high reputation invited conductors leading works of sacred music, including Monterverdi’s Virgin Vespers, Bach’s Matthaus Passion, Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s Requiem, Brahm’s German Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Stravinsky’s Mass, Thierry Escaich’s Last Gospel, Philippe Hersant’s Vespers…

He thus collaborated with great conductors like Leonardo García Alarcón, Sir Roger Norrington, David Reiland, John Nelson, Sofi Jeannin, or Gustavo Dudamel. He has been invited as a guest conductor by prestigious institutions in France (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opéra Comique, Orchestre national Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) and worldwide (Amsterdam Muziekgebouw, Moscow Tchaikovsky Hall, Cambridge Clare College, Luxembourg Philharmon, Budapest Radio Choir, New-York Lincoln Center). Trained as a professional organist, he was one of the titular organists at the Church of Notre-Dame in Versailles until 2014. In 2020, Henri Chalet is made chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

This album contains no booklet.