Marc Antoine

This release offers a liturgical reconstruction of the Vespers office. The five Vesper psalms and Magnificat belong to different periods in Charpentier's life and the six antiphons are by his organist-composer contemporary, Nivers. The reconstruction works well and Le Concert Spirituel, under Hervé Niquet, demonstrates its rapport with Charpentier's music. The vocal sound is fresh and the wide range of musical Affekt shows off a greater diversity of tonal colour.

The Canticum Zachariae dates from 1687, and its lovely six-part Benedictus shows Charpentier in characteristically fluent lyrical and contrapuntal form. The four-part Mass—the first of the composer’s eleven settings—which opens simply, extends to six voices in the Sanctus, with the spirited Hosanna extended to double choir. But it is the short Agnus Dei, serenely beautiful, that haunts the memory.

Charpentier here offers elegant and intimate music that ranges from the delicate to the exuberant, the lyrical, and the dramatic. Most if not all of these pieces were probably written for the musical establishment of the Duchess of Guise, who was Charpentiers patron from 1670 until her death in 1688. The performing forces on this recording consist of five singes, two obligato violins and a continuo ensemble with theorbos the most prominent harmony instruments. While some of he music could conceivably be performed with larger forces, the chamber-like scale of these readings suites the character of the music admirably. Both texts and music suggest private household devotion rather than public liturgy. Texts range from the traditional seasonal Marian Antiphons to anonymous Latin devotional poetry of the Counter-Reformation.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 - February 24, 1704) was a French composer of the Baroque era.
He was a prolific and versatile composer, producing music of the highest quality in several genres. His mastery in the composition of sacred vocal music was recognized and acknowledged by his contemporaries.

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. /quote]

Charpentier's Te Deum written in the bright key of D major features a four-part choir and eight soloists. It displays the composer's total command of religious music combined with a gift for melodic writing. Brilliant and majestic, yet profound, this Te Deum (Charpentier wrote four Te deums) was probably composed to celebrate the victory at Steinkerque in August 1692 during the wars against the countries of the League of Augsburg. [The struggle would eventually be in vain; and Strasburg, and the Palatine succession lost to France].

Due to legal complications engineered by Jean-Baptiste Lully and effected by Louis XIV, Marc-Antoine Charpentier's brilliant incidental music for Molière's final comedy, Le Malade imaginaire (1672-1674), was subjected to two drastic revisions. Despite the composer's usual precautions and careful maintenance of his manuscripts, the work's ordering became confused and scores of two important sections – the "Premier intermède" and the "Petit opéra impromptu" – lost. Thanks to the work of musicologists John S. Powell and H. Wiley Hitchcock, the full work has been reconstructed from surviving parts and restored for performance. The 1990 recording by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants is the most complete and authoritative version available; but if that makes it seem stuffy and dry, then hearing the performance will come as a glorious surprise.