Here are assembled three Grands Motets by Lully, associated with key moments in the reign of Louis XIV. In 1660, the Jubilate Deo celebrating the La Paix des Pyrénées and the king's wedding, erupts in unheard of proportions, that no other composer in France had produced before, and with breathtaking modernity. The music is triumphant, with a French-style overture worthy of future operas, grand theatrical narratives and choruses alternating between plenitude and exaltation: the celebratory motet was thus born with dazzling panache. The Quare fremuerunt gentes, even more dramatic, celebrated la Paix de Ratisbonne (the Peace of Regensburg) in 1685 with powerful operatic accents. Finally, the Miserere (1664) is the most famous French motet of the 17th century. Played in 1672 for the funeral service of Chancellor Séguier, it brought tears to Madame de Sévigné's eyes: "I don't believe there is any other music in heaven." Stéphane Fuget and his ensemble Les Epopées pursue their grace-filled cycle.

In 1670, Molière and Lully presented to the King Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, a sumptuous Comédie-Ballet performed by Molière's Troupe, with musicians conducted by Lully, ballets by Pierre Beauchamp, scenery by Carlo Vigarani and Turkish costumes by the Chevalier d'Arvieux. The work was inspired by the ambassador Soliman Musta Aga-Feraga, whom Louis XIV had just kept waiting for long weeks before receiving him, provoking his exasperation which amused the King and the courtiers’ sneer, the whole of Paris mocking the outlandish mores of the envoys of the Great Turk. The idea came to Molière of a plot based on fake Turks, ridiculing a Bourgeois aspiring to nobility: thus, a masterpiece was born, with the dazzling Cérémonie Turque, and at the end a sumptuous Ballet des Nations. The magnificent music of this pillar of French theatre is recorded here in its entirety for the first time by Vincent Dumestre: Glory be to Lully and to Molière!

This new recording from March 2024 of Jean-Baptiste Lully's musical tragedy, premiered in Saint-Germain-en-Laye 348 years earlier, is the result of the most recent historical, musicological and organological research. The instructions in the 1676 libretto regarding the orchestra's layout, the number and distribution of musicians, and the instrumental colours, particularly of the wind instruments, have been scrupulously followed by Alexis Kossenko and Beno�t Dratwicki, artistic director of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. The choice of soloists was as close as possible to the characteristics of the singers who performed the work when it was first created, as much is known about their vocal and theatrical qualities. This has resulted in a first-rate vocal ensemble, including Mathias Vidal, V�ronique Gens, Sandrine Piau, Tassis Christoyannis, Hasnaa Bennani, El�onore Pancrazi, Adrien Fournaison, David Witczak... as well as the Pages and Chantres du CMBV (bringing together children and adults) and Les Ambassadeurs - La Grande �curie, all experts in this repertoire.

The court of Louis XIV was a lively and musically thriving place, and Jean-Baptiste Lully, who actually was Italian (Giovanni Battista Lulli) but became a naturalized French citizen, was right in the middle of it. As director of one of the king's orchestras and as Superintendent of the King's Music, Composer of the King's Chamber, and Master of Music of the Royal Family, Lully's job included providing music for various entertainments, mostly ballets and other orchestral and stage works. Sacred choral music came later in Lully's career, and this recording offers three of his most important masterpieces in this genre. The artful use of homophonic and polyphonic sections, double chorus, soloists, and orchestral color combine to give each of these substantial works the dramatic charge and forward-moving energy of a theatrical piece. Le Concert Spirituel, named and fashioned after an 18th-century concert organization that specialized in performance of French "Grands Motets", is an outstanding modern advocate for Lully's music, with fine soloists, an excellent chorus that knows the true meaning of "ensemble", and instrumentalists (and conductor) who understand the importance of rhythm in realizing this music's full effect. I look forward to Volume 2. [11/25/1999]--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The Aradia Baroque Ensemble, Mary Enid Haines & Sharla Nafziger, Sopranos. Conducted by Kevin Mallon. Recorded at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Toronto, Canada October 8-10, 1996. Played on original instruments.