Touching the sky at the Palau

With the Pygmalion orchestral and choral ensemble, Raphaël Pichon likes to present heterogeneous programs seeking unity and without pauses. It might have been surprising, then, that the French ensemble presented at the Palau an evening with a first block dedicated to Germanic romantic sacred music (Mendelssohn, Schubert, Bruckner) and a second with the Mass in C minor by Mozart, with the addition (between the Sanctus-Benedictus) of the motet Ave verum by the Salzburg composer.

The aesthetic paradox was set aside because the choir, orchestra, and soloists achieved something very difficult when sacred music is performed outside of temples: that transcendence took hold of the Palau and allowed the spectators –especially those who were not coughing– to touch the sky with both hands.

There are still many concerts to enjoy until the end of spring, but without a doubt, this will be one of the best of the season. For the substance and the form. And it is that Pichon has the capacity to prodigiously conduct a group of versatile musicians, up to the achievement of not a few artistic miracles: contrasts between forte and piani without loss in tuning, perfect finishes at the ends of phrases, instrumental ductility, and the creation of atmospheres between mystical and sensual, throughout one hundred minutes of uninterrupted music.

It was a pleasant surprise to discover the more intimate sacred facet of Bruckner, Mendelssohn, and Schubert in the service of canons, motets, and graduals, before giving way to the musical cathedral that is Mozart's mass. The contrapuntal expansions of the Cum Sancto Spiritu with which the Gloria ends, the energetic start of the Credo, or the sinuous mystery of the beginning of the Kyrie will mark a before and after for those of us who venerate this sublime symphonic-choral page by the author of Don Giovanni.

Pichon, moreover, perfectly understands the balance between sacredness and theatricality –with an operatic background– of the arias that Mozart reserves for the two female voices, and here we had another highlight, especially with the voice of a simply wonderful Sabine Devieilhe in the initial Christe or in the concluding cadenza of the Et incarnatus est. Excellent the mezzoBlandine de Sansal and good –although brief– the interventions of tenor Kieran Carrel and baritone Christian Immler.