Stéphane Degout, Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon – Enfers (2018) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

With his ensemble Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon has written the listing for this album in the form of a “pastiche” of a Mass for the Dead, a Requiem both sacred and profane. While it is a long way from having all the defining traits, it does possess all the outlines: Introit, Kyrie, Gradual, Sequence, Offertory, In Paradisum… The idea came about after a recent discovery, in the Bibliothèque Nationale of an anonymous requiem mass from the 18th century, in which the writer constructed a “parody” based on musical extracts from Castor and Pollux and the Fêtes de Paphos by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Note that the term “parody” doesn’t necessarily imply satire or mockery: it refers to the practice of taking up older music and setting new words to it. This fusion of sacred music (the mass) and profane music (lyrical tragedy), a common practice during the Enlightenment, was a procedure that Pichon wanted to take up.

In French society at the time, when Catholicism was the norm, where the political system was monarchical rule by divine right, the representation of ancient pagan Hell on theatrical stages seemed to betray a fascination in the beliefs of the ancients. And so this programme melds together pagan fable with a Christian imaginary, where Hell takes on different faces. It is the place of unjust and eternal torment, a place of privation where a couple is separated, one half kept in Hades. But, in the lyrical tragedy, Hell is also a place of perdition: obscure forces unleashed in Sabbath rites, a Satanic vision which unearths the darkest depths of the human soul… Stéphane Degout is the author of this tragedy, bringing together such varied characters as Phaedra, Pluto, and the Parcae. The composers whose music is put to use are Rameau and Gluck, with a single borrowing from Rebel: it would have been a shame not to mention his singular Chaos (taken from Éléments), which starts with a dissonant chord containing the seven notes of the scale of D minor.

Tracklist:
01. Zoroastre, RCT 62, Act IV, Scene 6: Ah ! Nos fureurs ne sont point vaines (La Vengeance)
02. Les Élémens: Chaos
03. Dardanus, RCT 35, Act IV, Scene 4: Voici les tristes lieux. Montre affreux (Anténor)
04. Messe de Requiem sur des thèmes de Castor et Pollux: Requiem æternam
05. Iphigénie en Tauride, Wq. 46, Act II, Scenes 3 & 4: Dieux ! Protecteurs de ces affreux rivages (Oreste)
06. Messe de Requiem sur des thèmes de Castor et Pollux: Kyrie eleison
07. Hippolyte et Aricie, RCT 43, Act II, Scene 4: Dieux ! Que d’infortunés gémissent en ces lieux ! (Thésée)
08. Les Surprises de l’amour, RCT 58, Act II, Scene 8: Loure
09. Armide, Wq. 45, Act IV, Scene 1: Nous ne trouvons partout que des gouffres ouverts (Ubalde et le Chevalier danois)
10. Messe de Requiem sur des thèmes de Castor et Pollux: Domine Jesu Christe
11. Orphée et Eurydice, Wq. 30, Act II, Scene 1: Sinfonie infernale. Air de furie
12. Zoroastre, RCT 62, Act IV, Scenes 5 & 6: Épuisons le flanc des tristes victimes (Abramane)-Ministres, redoutés du plus puissant empire (Abramane, Érinice)
13. Zoroastre, RCT 62, Act IV, Scene 5: Air grave pour les Esprits infernaux
14. Zoroastre, RCT 62, Act IV, Scene 6: Quel bonheur ! L’Enfer nous seconde (Abramane, Les Furies, choir)
15. Orphée et Eurydice, Wq. 30, Act II: Danse des Furies
16. Hippolyte et Aricie, RCT 43, Act II, Scene 5: Vous, qui de l’avenir percez la nuit profonde (Pluton)-Quelle soudaine horreur (Trois Parques)
17. Hippolyte et Aricie, RCT 43, Act III, Scene 6: Qu’ai-je appris ? Puissant maître des flots (Thésée)
18. Messe de Requiem sur des thèmes de Castor et Pollux: Hostias et preces tibi
19. Hippolyte et Aricie, RCT 43, Act IV, Scene 4: Quelle plainte en ces lieux m’appelle ? (Phèdre)
20. Hippolyte et Aricie, RCT 43, Act V, Scene 2: Je ne te verrai plus ! (Thésée)
21. Orphée et Eurydice, Wq. 30, Act II, Scene 2: Ballet des Ombres heureuses
22. Messe de Requiem sur des thèmes de Castor et Pollux: Requiem æternam
23. Les Boréades, RCT 31, Act IV, Scene 4: Entrée de Polymnie