Texte paru dans: / Appeared in: Château de Versailles Spectcles |
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Outil de traduction ~ (Très approximatif) |
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Reviewer: John
W. Barker Jarry’s performers (here 28 players and 21 singers, from whom the soloists come) take their collective name from Marguerite Louise Couperin (d.1728). She was a cousin of the great organist and composer, and was widely acclaimed as a soprano in the early years of the 18th Century. The ensemble has already made several recordings in this Versailles series.
This particular program does
not attempt to recreate an actual Mass at the Versailles Chapel, but rather
samples the possible contents of both the “low” and “high” rites as they
would have unfolded in the chapel regular activities, from the three
greatest composers whose music would have been involved. Thus, as examples
of the low Mass, we are given a “petite motet” by François Couperin, plus
short organ pieces by that composer and Jean-Adam Guilain, as well as a
chant Communio (for a Mass in honor of St Louis IX). Representing the high
Mass, we have the two major works here, the “grand motets” Exaudiat te
Dominus by Jean-Baptiste Lully and Exaltabo te Domine by Michel-Richard de
Lalande, both settings of Psalms. Befitting the Sun King’s devotion to art
and grandeur, the selections here are all of great musical excellence, and
the performers have this style in their blood. Only at the very end does a
burst of enthusiastic applause show that this program was recorded in public
performance. For all that, the sound is superb. The groups are miked at just
the right distance and captured in extraordinary vividness. Noteworthy, too,
is the organ sound, which conveys well the tangy contrasts in the
registration. Extensive notes, with full texts and translations. A tasty French Baroque feast. | ||||
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