La Chapelle Royale de Versailles, Koopman

Jordi Savall - M.A. Charpentier - A La Chapelle Royale De Versailles (2014) {2CD+DVD Alia Vox AVDVD 9905}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 748 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 325 Mb
DVD9 -> 5.79 Gb | All Regions | PAL 16:9 | LPCM, 2 ch | ~ 92 min | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 315 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Alia Vox | AVDVD 9905
Classical / Baroque / Choral / Chamber Music

A treasure map is needed to find one’s way through this release. The CDs and DVD, exquisitely encased in a beautiful book – full of facsimiles, photographs and essays as well as vocal texts in innumerable translations – contain performances of some of the most beautifully crafted, deeply spiritual music Charpentier ever wrote. Catherine Cessac, the foremost French authority on Charpentier, writes eloquently on the music and Savall on the impetus for the collection. The repertoire, inspired by the story of the Virgin Mary, is drawn from all periods of Charpentier’s life and reflects the different private and public circumstances of his employment, the musical resources available to him and occasions for which he composed. In several cases more than one performance, each with different personnel, has been included, hence the need for a map.

It was 1988, and at that time the vast majority of Charpentier’s works were still accessible only via the original sources, so we had to rely on microfilms of the composer’s complete works collected in the twenty-eight manuscript volumes known as “Meslanges”. Poring over the manuscript pages on the screen of our microfilm reader, I studied and selected the works for the programme on the basis of the original texts.

Various Composers - La Chapelle Royale du Château de Versailles - Deux Siècles d’Orgue (2013) {2CD Set, Alpha 950}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 705 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 339 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 144 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Alpha Productions / Outhere | Alpha 950
Classical / Baroque / Organ

Two centuries of organ music at the Chapelle Royale, Versailles . . . The recently restored organ of the chapel bears witness to the glorious past of this historic site and the magnificence of the royal liturgy. This project, entrusted to the four resident organists of the instrument, presents a rich panorama of the composers who had the privilege of entering the Versailles organ loft, from the Couperin dynasty to Balbastre. It forms part of a new series produced by Alpha with the Château de Versailles, which will present the fruits of the latest research into the organ repertory in a sumptuous edition.

Originally composed for the funeral of the dauphine, Princess Marie-Anne-Christine-Victoire of Bavaria, on May 1, 1690, this remarkable setting of Dies irae was revised in 1711, either because of the dauphin's death, or that of Lalande's two daughters, both distinguished sopranos ; all died from smallpox within a period of six weeks. Lully's setting of Dies irae, for the death of the queen in 1683, had shown the possibilities of this text as a grand motet for soloists, choirs and orchestra. But it was Lalande, seven years later, who developed the concept, and produced a much more striking result - perhaps the first setting of Dies irae in the history of music where the composer exploited in such dramatic style the contrasts inherent in the 18 rhyming stanzas and final couplet of this 13th-century poem.

André Campra - Messe de Requiem
La Chapelle Royale Orchestra & Choir / Philippe Herreweghe
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 203 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi # 901251 | Country/Year: France 1987
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Sacred

…Campra was one of the leading French opera composers in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau. He wrote several tragédies en musique, but his chief claim to fame is as the creator of a new genre, opéra-ballet. He also wrote three books of cantatas as well as religious music, including a requiem…

Exemple emblématique du renouveau des Maîtrises en France au cours des années 80, Les Pages & les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles fêtent les 20 années de la direction musicale et pédagogique d’Olivier Schneebeli. Celui-ci a constitué, avec ce chœur réunissant de manière inédite voix d’enfants et voix d’adultes, dans la grande tradition de la Chapelle Royale de Versailles, un outil de valorisation unique du répertoire français des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Ce coffret exceptionnel convie l’auditeur à un itinéraire à travers les chefs-d’œuvre sacrés des compositeurs du « Grand Siècle », du règne d’Henri IV à la fin du règne de Louis XIV, et met en lumière, par de nombreux inédits, la naissance du genre musical emblématique de la Chapelle Royale : le grand motet.

Cinq ans après Atys, Armide grâce à la sensibilité de Philippe Herreweghe est l’objet d’un accomplissement rare. Depuis Cadmus (1673), Lully travaille la déclamation chantée dont le meilleur exemple ici est dans les nombreuses langueurs qui étreignent le cour d’Armide, le célèbre « Enfin il est en ma puissance » (II,4), modèle de l’art lullyste, cité par Rameau pendant la Querelle des Bouffons (1753). Voici la seconde approche de l’ouvrage par le chef flamand. La lisibilité de la progression dramatique est assurée par la définition d’un orchestre, précis, fascinant, véritable acteur. Outre Acis (passacaille finale), ouvrage ultime, aucune ouvre à part Armide, n’exprime à ce degré, l’émotivité instrumentale de Lully.

Rameau had the somewhat dubious fortune (in his own time, at least) to be such a powerful creative personality in the field of orchestral music that the quality of his dances sometimes overwhelms the operatic context in which he places them. From our point of view today, this hardly seems a liability, especially when it permits the performance of marvelous orchestral suites such as this from his various theatrical productions. Les Indes galantes (1735) contains some wonderful dance music, scored with the composer's usual imaginative flair.