While the famous Te Deum secured Charpentier's place in history, it was undoubtedly his Messe de Minuit that most contributed to his renown. True to Charpentier's genius, this mass is a perfect synthesis of the secular and the sacred, popular melodies and refined composition, offering a piece of remarkable originality and joy. These melodies, familiar to all, peasants and gentlemen alike, are enriched by orchestral parts and interwoven with subtle counterpoint and renewed harmony. The pleasure of music is thus offered to everyone: to recognise a familiar tune, or to grasp it's extraordinary arrangement. Under the direction of Gaetan Jarry, the Marguerite Louise ensemble sublimates these Latin oratorios and French pastorals, infusing the Christmas celebration with unparalleled fervour!

Recorded in the middle of a European tour in December 2024, this release marks the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists debut of acclaimed French conductor Christophe Rousset. Rousset brings his Gallic elegance and refinement to Charpentier's Baroque Christmas music - the motet In Nativitatem and the Messe de minuit pout Noel, along with the instrumental noels, or Christmas carols, that form the basis of Charpentier's unique mass.

LECONS DE TENEBRES

Marc-Antoine Charpentier is the only composer of the age of Louis XIV to have distinguished himself so remarkably in the genre of the 'sacred history': he wrote more than thirty such works, all composed after his residence in Italy. S�bastien Dauc� and the Ensemble Correspondances have carefully extracted from this outstanding corpus a number of gems that reflect both his experience in Rome (probably studying with Carissimi, the master of the oratorio) and the humanist concerns of an entire period. Like a miniature opera, each piece relates an exemplary destiny, including several strong-willed women (Judith, Cecilia, Mary Magdalene) and a deep friendship put to the test (Mors Sa�lis and Jonathae).

Having reached the peak of his art, Marc-Antoine Charpentier composed his final mass, Assumpta est Maria, around 1669. Composed around the theme of the Assumption of the Virgin, central to the Catholic religion, this grandiose work blends Italian influences and French style. Charpentier succeeded in combining devotion and virtuosity, making the Assumpta est Maria Mass one of the masterpieces of Baroque sacred music, still appreciated for it's mystical depth and musical brilliance. Gaetan Jarry, accompanied by his ensemble Marguerite Louise, gives a superb performance that brings out all the expressiveness and solemnity of this mass.

Charpentier: Te Deum

Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Actéon is a pastorale or miniature opera based on Greek mythology. Staged in 1684, the story is about the hunter Actaeon who peeks at the bathing goddess Diana, turned into a red deer, pursued and killed by his own hounds. The music is continuously imaginative with rhythmic choral parts, elegant solos and dramatic flourishes.

Classical Music

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) : Messe A 4 Choeurs - Ensemble Correspondances - S�bastien Dauc� - Composer: Charpentier, Marc-Antoine (1643-1704) Works: Charpentier, M-A: Carnets de voyage d'Italie. Charpentier, M-A: Messe � Quatre Choeurs. Conductors: S�bastien Dauc�. Groups & Artists: Ensemble Correspondances. Label: Harmonia Mundi. Contents: Charpentier, M-A: Messe � Quatre Choeurs - Ensemble Correspondances (early music ensemble) S�bastien Dauc� Charpentier, M-A: Carnets de voyage d'Italie - Ensemble Correspondances (early music ensemble) S�bastien Dauc�

Classical Music

Classical Music

This is the 12th release in Genuin's "Unheard-Of" series initiated by Michael Schefer. Presented here is the unusual repertoire of Jacques Charpentier who was a friend and pupil of Oliver Messiaen. This album connects ancient Indian raga tradition with modern Western music resulting in a very unique sound.

Marc Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) was never as famous as his contemporary Jean-Baptiste Lully. He never was a court composer, and did not get involved in the social or political circles of Versailles. His music was largely unappreciated until its rediscovery in the 1900s. Charpentier’s large output of sacred music, which includes more than 500 works, show his indisputable compositional refinement and prove the talent of this largely unperformed composer. L’Apotheose and Ricercare perform these works for voice, flute, string instrument, and more, drawing out the harmonic and melodic refinement that defines Charpentier’s music.

Charpentier & BEMF Again at their Best. In 2015 our most recent Charpentier recording to date, La Descente d’Orphee aux Enfers with young soloists and the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble, received the Grammy Award for the “Best Opera Production” of the preceding year and Gramophone’s “Editor’s Choice.” Our new album featuring two “mini-operas” by Charpentier again offers enthralling performances of this court music of charming dance character and elegance. In contrast to Charpentier’s other operas, Les Plaisirs de Versailles is directly associated with Louis XIV. The title of the manuscript score registers very clearly and unmistakably what is involved in this composition, and its equation of the “plaisirs,” the “pleasures,” with the king’s residence not only serves to reveal the subject but also the context: on the one hand, the work describes the pleasures that could be experienced in the royal palace; on the other hand, it itself is supposed to be one of these pleasures. Once again a beautiful and top-quality work from opera history is made available to listeners of the twenty-first century: “An important addition to the Charpentier discography” (Toccata).

Classical Music

As eldest son of Louis XIV, Louis of France, nicknamed le Grand Dauphin, was marked out to become king of France at his father's death. He was therefore given the education of a monarch, as this would have been conceived in the 17th century: running the affairs of the kingdom required knowledge of diplomatic and commercial relations, but also the acquisition of the external manifestations the Sun King had resorted to so skilfully, subjecting architecture, drama, painting and music to the requirements of his government. Just like his father, the Dauphin surrounded himself with chosen personalities, amongst whom the composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Removed from an official position at court by the talent and the intrigues of Lully, he was not allowed to write for the opera, for which the "Surintendant de la musique" had obtained a royal privilege. He therefore concentrated his creative activity primarily on sacred music, giving it the "Italian style" expressivity he had learned in Rome, where he had studied with Carrissimi. This religious lyricism deploys itself in the motets composed for Monseigneur's religious services. The later would remain Dauphin for eternity since he died in 1711, four years before his father.

The Orpheus myth was as important for the birth of opera in France as it had been in Italy. In 1684, Charpentier composed a work for three voices, Orphée descendant aux Enfers. With this piece, remarkable for its style and concision, he showed how well he had assimilated Carissimi’s art. It is a dramatic scene, similar to the ‘sacred histories’ of the Roman master. The text, by an unknown author, narrates Orpheus’ quest for his beloved in the Underworld. The hero’s haute-contre gives him an elegiac timbre – this was the vocal register in which Charpentier, himself a singer, excelled. In 1687 he created his second illustration of the myth, La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers. In its two acts can be discerned the outline of a possible complete opera – the manuscript has reached us shorn of the third act in which Orpheus would presumably have lost Eurydice before being devoured by the Maenads. While La Descente d’Orphée has already been recorded several times, the Orphée of 1684 is a rarity and a magnificent discovery. In these two roles that might have been written for him, Reinoud van Mechelen is at the peak of his artistry, while his ensemble A Nocte Temporis and Lionel Meunier’s group Vox Luminis blend in perfect symbiosis.

Passionate advocates of French music, Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas and Les Surprises tackle its intimate and spiritual side with M.-A. Charpentier and S. de Brossard. They share their vision of the Meditations for Lent, a masterpiece for three male voices and basso continuo. Founded in 2010 by Juliette Guignard and Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas, the ensemble Les Surprises seeks to convey its passion for the music of the 17th and 18th centuries through varied and original programmes. In borrowing its name from the opéra-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau Les Surprises de l’Amour, the group has placed its destiny under the lucky star of this composer, with the aim of exploring operatic music in all its shapes and forms. The work of the ensemble is anchored in a process of musicological and historical research, indeed Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas wishes to highlight scores that have never been released since the 18th century, thanks to music libraries such as Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) or Bibliothèque de l’Opéra de Paris.

Charpentier, M.-A.: Sacred Music, Vol. 4

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Classical Music

After the success of the Red, Yellow, Blue and Pink collections (a total of 56 reissues), which brought the pearls from the Baroque catalogues of the house labels back into the spotlight, here are fourteen new titles offering a chance to rediscover more Baroque treasures and rarities. Like the last series, this fifth installment also opens up to the Classical (Mozart) or Renaissance (Dufay) repertories - recordings that are an integral part of Alpha's identity and history. This series' reissues are performed by the finest musicians in the field; most of these recordings received one or more awards on their first release. The albums come with proper booklets, including notes in three languages (French, English, German). Photographers from many different backgrounds illustrate the covers of the series with their works: this time the main theme is the color white. The present album features Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Vespers for Saint Louis, performed by Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and Olivier Schneebeli.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier is unquestionably the greatest master of church music in 17th century France.
Two of his most important works are expanded in this recording with organ interludes from organ masses by François Couperin.

Médée, a tragedy in a prologue and five acts on a libretto by Thomas Corneille, was Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s first and last collaboration with the Académie Royale de Musique. The work was premiered on 4 December 1693, when Charpentier was exactly fifty years old and at the height of his career. Louis XIV attended the performance, proving that it was an eagerly awaited event. Yet this sombre drama, which disconcerted the public, was withdrawn after just ten performances, and not heard again until 1976. A specialist in the French repertory and a close associate of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, where he has followed all the advances in research and historically informed performance for thirty-five years, Hervé Niquet has endeavoured, in presenting this new Médée, scrupulously to apply all the scholarly findings available to us today.

Two Te Deums go head to head! The famous one by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and a completely new one by Henry Desmarets. Charpentier and Desmarets, remarkable composers of both sacred music and opera, shared a taste for Italian music and travel, but they also shared the disadvantage of having spent some time in Jean-Baptiste Lully's 'shadow'! Desmarets' life was somewhat tormented, between disgrace and exile; it was while he was superintendent of music at the Court of Lorraine that he composed two Te Deums, including the Te Deum"de Lyon". Written for the same ensemble as Charpentier's famous Te Deum, it uses trumpets and timpani for the grandiloquent sections. It is a true work of craftsmanship, notably in the variety of instrumentation, but also in its alternation of different vocal forces.