2025-2026 Season

Johann Sebastian Bach's motets represent the pinnacle of the composer's contrapuntal artistry. They frequently feature a double choir structure and captivate listeners with their rich variety of colors, which beautifully illustrate the meaning of the text. Similarly, Frank Martin's Double Choir Mass displays an architectural rigor worthy of the Leipzig cantor, whom he deeply admired.

In the 19th century, a new genre emerged: the symphonic poem, a piece based on an extra-musical, literary, or pictorial theme. During a stay in Paris, Rachmaninoff was literally captivated by a painting depicting Böcklin's Isle of the Dead and composed a work recreating the funereal atmosphere of the painting. Fifteen years later, Marcel Dupré composed his Symphonie-Passion, akin to a symphonic poem evoking four moments in the life of Christ.

Two masterpieces by Stravinsky, polar opposites, come together here: alongside the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris, a brass octet and organists Olivier Latry and Shin-Young Lee confront these two facets, so dissimilar yet equally fascinating.

A true golden age of music, the 17th century was marked by an exploration of human emotions and a blossoming of vocal expressiveness. Performing some of the gems from these repertoires, the solists of the Maitrise de Notre-Dame celebrate the diversity of musical languages.

Haydn's Creation brought the 18th century to a glorious close and laid the foundations for what would become the oratorio in the 19th century. Performed more than forty times throughout Europe before the composer's death in 1809, it remains unanimously admired for the mastery of its vocal and orchestral writing and the power of its expressiveness.