Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864)
"Hallelujah", petite cantate pour 4 voix d'hommes, orgue obligé et chœur Ad libitum
"Psaume 91", Motet pour solistes et chœur à 8 voix
"Cantique", pour basse seule, chœur mixte à 6 voix et orgue
"Pater Noster", pour choeur à 4 voix a cappella
"Sieben Geistliche Gesänge", pour 4 voix seules et choeur mixte à 4 voix a cappella
"Am Mozart", pour choeur à 4 voix a cappella

Rheinische Kantorei
Hermann Max, direction

Fils de riches banquiers allemands, Jacob Meyer (1791-1864) se fit appeller Giacomo Meyerbeer par amour de l'opéra italien. Pianiste à ses débuts, il parcourt l'Europe, l'Italie (il y découvre Rossini), l'Allemagne (il affronte la concurrence de Weber) mais c'est à Paris (il y rencontre Scribe, son futur librettiste) qu'il se bâtit une véritable carrière de compositeur avec ses deux principaux opéras : Robert le Diable et Les Huguenots. Sa musique sacrée présentée ici est une musique d'église à vocation liturgique. Elle est en cela assez voisine des pages de Mendelssohn (le Psaume Der.91, alternant choeur et passages solistes) ou parfois de Chérubini ( La "Cantatine" Hallelujah empreinte d'une pompeuse solennité). Les "Sept Chants Sacrés" sont des airs variés accomodés d'une belle garniture contrapuntique. Quant au choeur "An Mozart", c'est la petite friandise supplémentaire qui agrémente un programme bien conçu. Belle prestation du majestueux Rheinsche Kantorei (dont on apprécie à chaque enregistrement l'équilibre général et la qualité vocale des pupitres) et de son chef Hermann Max à qui l'on ne peux reprocher de mal connaitre son répertoire. (Jérôme Angouillant)

Hermann Max and his Rheinische Kantorei present an entirely new facet in the oeuvre of the opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer on this recording premiere of his sacred choral works. In the booklet Max himself writes as follows: "The protagonists of the Enlightenment influenced Giacomo’s social network in letters and conversations during his early years. It was only logical that religious texts were viewed more in literary terms than as faith documents to be taken seriously. The stories from the Bible contradicting the laws of nature were taken more nonchalantly than with absolute seriousness and naive faith. Jesus often was mentioned no longer as the Son of God but as the most important human being ever born. As a principle operating against prejudices and intolerance, reason questioned everything religious and offered guidance contributing to the proper recognition of the laws of nature. For Meyerbeer the fascination of religious texts lay in their musical setting as historical and literary material. Romanticists experienced ‘time travel’ to regions located in the distant past as a departure from reality and the exploration of an imaginary world created by the mind. Giacomo enjoyed all of the above and was enthusiastic about what he learned as a traveler in Europe. His career as a virtuoso, which his great talent as a pianist when he was a boy had seemed to promise, was soon forgotten. Italy fascinated Meyerbeer. Especially Rossini and Salieri. He now knew that it was right to have abandoned the oppressively dry instruction in composition that he was receiving from Zelter and to study in Darmstadt with Abbé Vogler (where Carl Maria von Weber was his fellow student). The Abbé cured him of self-doubts and opened his imagination to a vast ocean of compositional possibilities. Die sieben geistlichen Gesänge and the Hallelujah were the direct result of his Darmstadt years".