Dominic Desjardin Concerto à Quatre Pattes

The matchless French farceur Fernandel essays six different roles in The Sheep Has Five Legs. We first see the horse-faced one as an elderly wine grower, looking forward to an upcoming family reunion with mixed emotions. One by one, the other five Fernandels make their appearances; these are the wine-grower's sons, each one a small masterpiece of comic characterization.

The music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier has a moderate range and a deceptively simple harmonic framework that lead a wide variety of performing forces to attempt his works. The little Messe de minuit was a Christmastime favorite even in the years when French Baroque music was almost unknown otherwise. But choirs can get in over their heads, and that happens here even to Le Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, a group that has released fine recordings of music by Carissimi and other Baroque composers.

A contemporary of Lully and Lalande, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) was something of an outsider to the French court of Louis XIV, which helps to explain his comparative obscurity. A period of study in Rome doubtless gave Charpentier exposure to the polychoral style long-established from the time of Gabrieli, and this recording presents the triple-choir Salve Regina alongside the opulent Messe à quatre chœurs – written for four separate choirs, with a large continuo team of four organs, four theorbos, bass viol and great bass viol! The possibilities opened up by such a wealth of musicians engender music which seems as close to the proverbial “choir of the angels of heaven” as could be desired.

J'ai crié son nom… Je me suis installé sur un banc… J'étais impressionné… J'étais vraiment vraiment heureuse… Ce pourrait n'être que le récit à quatre voix d'une promenade au parc, mais la plume et le trait d'Anthony Browne ont transformé cette histoire simple en un fascinant exercice de style.