Joseph Ermend Bonnal

Hymne a l'univers is an album on Opus 3 Records from acclaimed organist Mattias Wager, whose previous release on Opus 3 Records was the best-selling album entitled Organ Treasures. The Stockholm City Hall is known around the world for housing the Nobel prize banquet. It is also home to the largest organ in Scandinavia. On this spectacular instrument, with its 10,400 pipes, Mattias Wager plays French music from the Thirties. The music, by Alain, Jolivet, Bonnal and Duruflé shows the scope and sheer creativity of its time, and its feeling of boundless musical possibilities. With its wealth of sound, the Stockholm City Hall organ is one of the few instruments that make it possible to really bring out all the colors in this repertoire. Additionally this is the first real recording of this organ, even though it was built in 1926, 3 years after the Stockholm City Hall was opened to the public.

The Ensemble des Equilibres, touched by the beauty and artistic importance of three great works: Jean Cras (1879-1932), Joseph-Ermend Bonnal (1880-1944) and Albert Roussel (1869-1937) ) - a fundamental part of the French classical repertoire, has set itself the task of immortalizing them in the form of a disc, in order to offer the general public the pleasure of discovering them, and to assure to these works the posterity which come back. This one leaves at ARION at the end of February 2017.

The Quatuor Debussy is noted for the breadth of its repertory, which features not only French music (including its namesake's sole quartet but also less familiar French music such as that of Romantic composer Joseph-Ermend Bonnal), but also the Shostakovich quartets, which it has recorded as a cycle, German and Austrian music, American contemporary works, and music for children. The group has a substantial discography, mostly on the Arion and Evidence labels.