BYZANTINE CHANT. Sister Marie Keyrouz, SBC (voc); Saint Julien-le-Pauvre Choir, Paris. Harmonia Mundi (r) CJ HMC40 1315;

H MC90 1315 (52 minutes: ADD). Texts in

English included.

Chants from the liturgy of Holy Week and Easter Day.

Any visitor to Paris may have noticed a small church tucked away in the shadow of Notre Dame: Saint Julien-le-Pauvre. This is the parish church for Eastern rite Catholics living in Paris. The Choir provides the ison—the supporting drone accompaniment—for this unique performance of Byzantine chant given by a nun from the

Lebanon, Sister Marie Keyrouz. It is rare enough, indeed, to hear a female cantor, let alone one of the calibre of Sister Marie, who sings with all the art and knowledge of a professional, a full programme of exacting and elaborate ancient liturgical music. Her recital, sung in Greek and Arabic, includes chants for each day of Holy Week, from Monday to Easter Sunday, each day having its own particular theme. On the Wednesday the central figure is Magdalene, the penitent woman, and the music is her highly-wrought prayer of contrition, her plea for mercy. Thursday concentrates upon the Last Supper, with a Communion prayer made up of a similarly elaborate, even ecstatic vocalization. The Troparion from Matins for Holy Saturday is centred on the Burial of Christ, expressed mainly in a fast-running syllabic style interspersed with doxology phrases sung by the Choir. One of the most remarkable pieces is the final Resurrection chant, "Shine out, you new Jerusalem", in which the melismatic chant rises to new heights.

The strength of this performance lies in the sustained power and controlled emotion which pours forth with a sense of ease. Sister Marie's voice covers a range of just under two octaves. The timbre is rich and slightly nasal. She manages the minor/major ambiguity with subtlety and her ornamentation never sounds other than inevitable. Translations are given, but regrettably no original texts, and the sleeve-note sheds little light. But the record itself is a document of unusual interest. M.B.