Julien Joubert, Agnès Gourdon, Chœurs de la Musique de Léonie and Marie-Noëlle Maerten - Julien Joubert: Elle pleurait... (2024) [Hi-Res]

Charles Péguy and Julien Joubert have at least two things in common – they were both born in Orléans (separated by exactly a century) and both of them have a special relationship with the figure of Joan of Arc. At the age of 24, Julien Joubert read Jeanne d'Arc, a play written in 1897 by Charles Péguy – also aged 24 – who had just gained his teaching diploma. Péguy’s drama awakened in Julien Joubert the strong desire to compose. His first idea was to set it as a musical comedy, a crazy notion that he soon abandoned. A few years later, however, a kind of condensed version of this idea emerged, entitled Chansons pour Jeanne. It was another unfinished project that eventually gave birth to Elle pleurait... (Stabat Mater) – the commission for a religious musical work for Holy Week 2003. As an atheist, Joubert was not sure he wanted to embark on a piece of this kind; but reading the Latin poem of the Stabat Mater together with the Passion narrative that Péguy always included in his Mystère de la charité de Jeanne d'Arc (to which the poet had added 48 pages just at the moment of signing it off for printing) motivated the composer to complete the project, even though the commission had already been abandoned by its sponsor. Here we present Elle pleurait... (Stabat Mater) in two versions: one with Charles Péguy’s text, and one in a purely musical setting.