Vierne:
Messe solennelle en ut # mineur, pour Choeur a quatre voix mixtes et deux orgues. Op. 16:
Tantum ergo
Ave Maria

Widor:
Messe pour deux choeurs et deux orgues op. 36:
Tantum ergo
Psaume 83:
Quam dilecta tabernacula tua, Tu es Petrus
Motet Surrexit a mortuis, pour choeur mixte et deux orgues

Vincent Boucher, titular organist of the great organs at Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Montreal, is the soloist on this recording featuring two organs and two choirs. He performs the masses and sacred motets of Charles-Marie Widor and Louis Vierne with the Petits chanteurs du Mont-Royal and the Chantres musiciens. This new ATMA Classique recording was made in the spectacular setting of the basilica of Saint Joseph’s Oratory.

Widor’s Messe, Op. 36, been described as “containing the power of Bach and of Handel, combined with the penetrating grace of Mendelssohn, all animated by a Catholic feeling.” The mass was composed in 1878 for the Saint-Sulpice church, and calls for a large number of singers formed into two choirs.

Louis Vierne began writing his Messe pour deux orgues et choeur, Op. 16, in 1899, when he was Widor’s substitute at Saint-Sulpice. The album also contains other sacred works by Widor: Tantum ergo and Ave Maria, both by Vierne, and Widor’s Psalm 83: (“Quam dilecta tabernacula tua”), his Tantum ergo, and his motet Sacerdos et Pontifex ("Surrexit a mortuis") for mixed choir and two organs.

The Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal is a boys’ choir established in 1956 by Father Léandre Brault, c.s.c.. Aged 9 to 17, the 210 boys in the choir come from diverse social and cultural backgrounds. Mr. Gilbert Patenaude is the Musical Director and Choirmaster. Founded in 1992 by their current Artistic Director Gilbert Patenaude, Les Chantres Musiciens is a choir of young men aged 17 to 29 who hail from the celebrated Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal.

? Vincent Boucher became the official organist at Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Montreal on February 1, 2015. In 2000, he won first prize in the John Robb Organ Competition and in 2002, he won the Académie de musique du Québec’s Prix d’Europe, which had not been given to an organist since 1966. Boucher has made seven ATMA recordings which have won a number of prizes and the praise of critics.