Les Arts Florissants, one of the world's most renowned Baroque ensembles, joins forces with legendary founder and artistic director William Christie for a landmark release: the first complete recording of Andre Campra's Requiem, paired with his profoundly moving Miserere. These works, filled with clarity, grace, and emotional power, offer a deeply personal and spiritual listening experience. Campra's music speaks straight to the soul, with harmonies that are subtle, expressive, and timeless. Performed on period instruments at original French pitch and shaped by authentic ensemble forces, this recording is a masterclass in historically informed performance, true to Campra's era, and brought vividly to life by musicians at the top of their craft. With it's unmistakably rich and nuanced sound, Les Arts Florissants infuses every phrase with the elegance of French musical heritage, even in Latin texts shaped by the unique French pronunciation of the time. This is more than a recording, it's a rediscovery of one of sacred music's most refined voices. Though Campra's genius has long been underappreciated, this release brings his spiritual artistry to the forefront for a new generation. A powerful listening experience and a milestone debut for Les Arts Florissants and William Christie on PENTATONE, this album is an essential addition to any collection of great sacred choral works.

REQUIEM

Nearly a century before Gluck, another opera called Iphigenie en Tauride - same plot, same protagonists - had immense success on the opera stage. This 'first' Iphigenie has rather a curious history. The opera was sketched out by composer Henri Desmarest around the year 1695, but he was then banished from France by Louis XIV for having married a young girl without her father's consent. The uncompleted score of Iphigenie was then entrusted to Andre Campra. The opera, since lost and forgotten, was rediscovered by Benoit Dratwicki, Director of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, who marvels at it's stylistic unity: 'Campra easily adopted Desmarest's style. He just added some virtuoso arias to the divertissements, as well as the tuneful choruses that were his speciality.' Iphigenie en Tauride had it's premiere on 6 May 1704, and was revived throughout Europe from 1711. Thanks to Herve Niquet, a top-flight team of singers, an orchestra well versed in French repertoire, and all their collaborative research into the practices and specific playing techniques of the early 18th century, Iphigenie sees the light of day once more.

Classical Music

One of Andre Campra’s best known works, the Messe de Requiem was frequently performed during the 18th century at notable memorial services and funerals. This release pairs the Messe de Requiem with Campra’s De profundis, which displays the composer’s theatrical abilities. The ensemble performing these works, ensemble3, grew out of the Internationale Chorakademie im Dreilandereck, and is conducted here by Hans Michael Beuerle.

Classical Music

A Baroque West Side Story, Tancrède tells of the absolute but impossible love between two young people brought together by their passion but separated by their origins. • We are in the time of the Crusades: Tancredi is the champion of the Frankish army, and Clorinda the passionaria of the Saracen troops. • In the labyrinth of sentiments, sorcerer Isménor’s magic wand confuses the issues, luring the two heroes into the enchanted forest to better prepare their downfall. • With Tancrède, André Campra (1660-1744) established himself as one of the great opera composers between Lully and Rameau.

Fabio Bonizzoni has come up with another immaginative and enticing programme for his latest Glossa release, creating an Italian "pastiche" drama with music by André Campra and with the starring presence of soprano Roberta Invernizzi. André Campra, a major figure in the world of French opera between Lully and Rameau, was clearly not very impressed by the former's discouragement of Italian musical practices inside France when he was elevated to the post of surintendant de la musique du roi. In many of Campra's French opéras-ballets and comédieslyriques written by him as the 18th century was emerging out of the 17th are to be found interpolated many dashing arias with texts in Italian (Campra's father was Italian-born like Lully padre e figlio) and from some of these Fabio Bonizzoni and Angela Romagnoli have chosen and concocted Gli strali d'Amore (Love's Arrows), thereby, curiously, following in the footsteps of Campra himself - who was a dab hand at this activity himself, as demonstrated by his own Les Fragments de Mr. De Lully. Joining Bonizzoni and Invernizzi (Glossa has recently issued a "Portrait" album involving the Milanese soprano) in this delightful sequence of recitatives and da capo arias recorded in Tuscan Brunello are the impressive Cyril Auvity and Salvo Vitale, and a sprightly La Risonanza.

Campra was the most important opera composer between Lully and Rameau. The success of Europe Galante in 1697 is a tribute to this founding work of the Opera-Ballet, mixing dance and opera in the opulent divertissements. Campra takes the spectator on a voyage into the amorous nations of Europe. France moves to the rhythm of the genteel heartbeat of the shepherds and the shepherdesses, Italy refined but jealous and violent and finally the Sultan who has to soothe the criminal bitterness of the Sultana, who has been ousted by a beautiful slave. This is spicy musical banter created during the reign of Louis XIV, recovered by Les Nouveaux Caracteres directed by Sebastien d’Herin.

Le Destin du Nouveau Siècle [The Fate of the New Century]: what a pertinent idea for a libretto for the year 1700! This unknown opera-ballet by Campra, premiered at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, foreshadowed the Century that was opening in France, where Louis XIV had been King for... 57 years! Saturn wants to regulate the destiny of this new century according to the will of the people, but some wish to ignite an eternal War, while others celebrate Peace. Campra's splendid music is here marvelously revealed by exceptional soloists, under the direction of Patrick Bismuth. The Europe of the old King was rumbling with war and famine to come, unrest mingled with hope at the dawn of this new century... here is the musical snapshot of this so particular era!

With its exotic dances and virtuoso Italian arias, “Le Carnaval de Venise” (1699) by André Campra is one of the most original experiments to be found in the entire French musico-dramatic output of the time. With this work at the latest, the composer gained the reputation of being the new master of French opera. Campra creates a colorful score in the Franco-Italian style for his ballet opera, which evokes the exuberant spirit of the legendary Venetian carnival in the middle of Paris. With this 2011 recording, Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel have added another gem to their collection of rediscovered operas from the 17th and 18th centuries. In this re-release, this jewel is finally available again on the market.