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 Yet this sombre drama, which disconcerted the public, was withdrawn after just ten performances, and not heard again until 1976.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.

In 1692, Charpentier wrote the Te Deum that would make him famous into the 20th century. Played for the military victory of Steenkerque, most probably at the church of Saint-Louis-des-Jésuites, this masterpiece, which glorified the armies of Louis XIV, is a powerful fresco whose prelude opens with the martial rhythms of the timpani and trumpets, symbolising the Grand Siècle of the arts, but also Louis XIV's conquests. Valentin Tournet adds pieces to the programme whose pomp is matched by their quality and expressiveness: the De Profundis has an extraordinary solemnity, while the Marche de Triomphe sounds the trumpets for the king considered the greatest in the world.

This is a baroque dream: a performance of the sacred drama David and Jonathas, a masterpiece by Charpentier and one of the miracles of French opera, in the Royal Chapel of Versailles! In 1688, the Louis-le-Grand Jesuit school performed this vibrant version of the fateful, fusional love between David and Jonathas… and the inevitable confrontation between their armies. Their deep friendship – biblical love – leads to the death of Jonathas in the arms of the victorious David. The intense emotion exuded by this piece is amplified by the staging, sets and costumes, under the stirring direction of Gaétan Jarry: a sumptuous, dazzling baroque vision.

“Percé jusques au fond du coeur” (“Pierced to my heart’s depths”) is a tragic proclamation of Le Cid’s voice, at last put to music by “Mr Charpentier, famed for a thousand works that charmed all of France”. This collection of courtly arias, serious songs and drinking songs, played both at the Court of Louis XV and in the inner circles of the French bourgeoisie, is a marvellous maze on the Map of Tendre developed by Charpentier, a poet-musician whose sophistication vies with an irresistible sense of theatricality! Under the direction of Stéphane Fuget, the cream of French vocalists restores the original aura of these gems, with glittering ornamentation.

Includes vesper(s) by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Ensemble: Le Concert spirituel. Conductor: Hervé Niquet.

It is now twenty years ago that Henri Ledroit left us. He had been one of the first artists to have faith in the grand enterprise that Ricercar launched in 1980; the recordings that we then took such great delight in making now enshrine priceless memories of him and his art. Henri Ledroit personified the both the joy of singing and the intelligent delivery of the text; these qualities, combined with his richly warm and yet so delicate and fragile voice, created his magic. This recording -- our 2009 catalogue is included with it -- is devoted in the main to repertoire that is indeed seldom performed: the cantatas and airs de cour by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. We are now proud to present it for re-release, accompanied by an introductory text by Catherine Cessac. The recording has been completed with several sacred compositions that were amongst Henri Ledroit's first recordings. This compilation also marks the re-release of the complete recordings made by this wonderful musician. This recording offers the listener the pleasure of rediscovering the unique moments of emotion that Henri Ledroit shared with such generosity with all who had the pleasure of hearing him. These same emotions are still alive today: those that he brought to us and those that we experienced as we listened to him.

Includes work(s) by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Ensemble: Aradia Baroque Ensemble.

Charpentier, M.-A.: Noels and Christmas Motets, Vol. 2

To follow his illuminating recordings of music by Claude Debussy (GCD 922206) and Camille Saint-Saëns (GCD 922210) with the Brussels Philharmonic, Hervé Niquet is now turning his away from the Baroque to the dramatic realism of the end of the 19th century. Gustave Charpentier has, rather unfairly, become known for being the composer of only the one work, that operatic reflection of Zolaesque naturalism, Louise, first performed in 1900. Are people aware that this opera had been composed (at least in part) on one of the seven Roman hills, more than ten years earlier? And that Italian period in Charpentier's life (1888-1890) had actually turned out to be his most fruitful creative time? It was there in Rome that he worked on two masterly symphonic works, the one elaborating his Impressions d'Italie which was to enjoy significant success right up until the Second World War, whilst the other - more experimental - called for three soloists, a chorus and a large symphonic orchestra: La Vie du poète. It was thanks to the quality of his chorus La Fête des myrtes and his magnificent Wagnerian cantata Didon that the composer won, in 1887, the famous Prix de Rome, opening the way for him to have a Bohemian séjour in the Villa Medici. This third release in the Prix de Rome series by Glossa (in conjunction with the Palazzetto Bru Zane) is set to demonstrate a composer whose range of talents far extends beyond the - admittedly enchanting - aria Depuis le jour...

Charpentier, M.-A.: Sacred Music, Vol. 1

Almost all the music performed on these separately available discs is, or has been, available in competing versions. But Le Concert Spirituel under Hervé Niquet’s experienced direction achieves an expressive intensity which overshadows its rivals. Charpentier wrote over 30 Tenebrae for the last three days of Holy Week and their texts, drawn from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, inspired the composer to extraordinary heights of anguished declamation. Much of the music is a skilful blend of French court air with Italian monodic lamentazioni, which he had encountered during his three years in Rome as Carissimi’s pupil. The five Lenten (Carême) Meditations on the path to Christ’s Crucifixion belong to a group of ten such pieces which are hardly less striking than the Tenebrae for their expressive ardour. If the performances are not always refined, they lack nothing in respect of fervent and idiomatic declamation.

The Mass for M de Mauroy, one of 11 such pieces by Charpentier, is among the finest of them. The identity of M de Mauroy has not been established but he deserves a pat on the back either for commissioning, or just being associated with a work of such beauty and eloquence – the Gloria and Credo are outstandingly affecting. Niquet, his voices and his ensemble of woodwind and strings reveal its strengths with full-blooded emotional responses and a convincing stylistic sense.

-- Nicholas Anderson, BBC Music Magazine Reviewing Glossa 921602

Charpentier, M.-A.: Messe de Minuit pour Noel / Te Deum

"[A] glorious programme of petits motets for Lent, . . . [where] each piece is a tender, introspective contribution to the Passion story.

"Ensemble Pierre Robert’s resonant textures and skilful dramatic timing make these heartfelt performances spring to life . . . full of beautifully emotive polyphony.

"The Alpha label deserves its plaudits for enterprising repertoire, lavish attention to artwork, and beautifully recorded sound."

-- David Vickers, Gramophone