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.