Philippe Hersant’s Paradiso for choir and archlute will be premiered at this year’s Festival Ombres et Lumières at Clairvaux. Here is an introduction by the composer:

“After having been for three years the guest composer of the Festival Ombres et Lumières at Clairvaux, I responded to a new request from its artistic director Anne-Marie Sallé: to write a piece to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the founding of the Abbey by Bernard de Clairvaux.

I hesitated a lot over the choice of text before turning to the magnificent prayer that St. Bernard devoted to the Virgin Mary at the beginning of the last cantica of Dante’s Divine Comedy. St. Bernard serves as Dante’s final guide in Paradiso, taking up after Béatrice, who had guided Dante through the nine circles of Heaven, fades away.

St. Bernard is not merely a fictional character. He was a Cistercian monk whose contemplative mysticism and eloquent writings made an impression on Dante. His work influenced numerous passages of the Comedy – in particular this prayer.

The piece I wrote alternates between strophes of the prayer, sung by a mixed choir, and instrumental sequences performed on an archlute, which were greatly inspired by the Gregorian Salve Regina.”

Philippe Hersant