Parlement

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].

From the music of François Couperin, Aline Zylberajch and Martin Gester have assembled a Watteau-esque idyll fit for a king. A manuscript trio sonata from the early 1690s and one of the chamber concerts included in his collection entitled Les Goûts-réunis add further instrumental timbres to what is otherwise a showcase for the ravishing Ruckers-Taskin harpsichord from the Musée de la Musique at the Cité de la Musique in Paris. The excellent booklet notes by Denis Herlin provide all you might wish to know about the background of the music.

La partition (manuscrit d'Uppsala, 1667) que viennent de restituer Martin Gester et son frère le musicologue Jean-Luc Gester est de tout premier ordre. On ne sait qui l'a écrite, mais celui qui le fit est un grand assurément. Climat sensuel et doloriste, beauté de l'écriture, raffinement de l'expression. Les solistes vocaux groupés autour de Gester sont épatants, chantant comme un madrigal spirituel cette passion de chambre.

This recording includes works for the oboe by four French Baroque composers, Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, Francois Courpin, and Marin Marais. Among them Montéclair is a cantata "Pan et Syrinx" (Pan et Syrinx). The story of the faun Pan chasing the nymph Silinks is popular with composers. On the one hand, this is a sad story about love that can never be obtained, and the drama and imagination in it are quite suitable for composers to play; A flute, this "pan flute" can be played with a modern flute (as in Debussy's Syrinx), or with an oboe like Montéclair. The tone of the oboe is not as cold as the flute, but rather warm, elegant and fresh. On the one hand, it is very suitable for depicting the quiet life of nature or the countryside. The sweet memories of a lost love couldn't be more fitting.

Vivaldi is best known as a composer of instrumental music, but the man has also written a lot of secular vocal music, from large-scale operas to the more intimate cantatas. "La Senna festeggiante" is not a real opera, but a 'serenata', a word derived from the Italian 'sereno' (clear). The genre was so named because the spectacles in question were performed outdoors on clear, warm summer nights. Serenatas were usually written by order of a nobleman or high clergyman, as part of large celebrations to mark a special event such as a birthday, the birth of an heir, a marriage, the arrival of an important person, and so on. They were usually performed in the principal's palace garden.

Descendant d'une longue lignée de musiciens, François Couperin fut le plus grand compositeur baroque de son temps. Il représente un jalon important entre Lully et Rameau et, bien que, comparé à d'autres, il ait peu composé, rien dans son oeuvre n'est à écarter. C'est pour les concerts du dimanche matin à la cour du roi Louis XIV, que Couperin composa cette série de Concerts royaux.

Brossard did not have much formal training but was, nevertheless, a composer, theorist and lute player. He was a priest at Notre Dame and composed a number of sacred works, notably motets, oratorios, masses, and cantatas. (Prior to this he had composed a number of chansons and airs as well.) He wrote a number of treatises and collected many works that originated outside of France. Some of the publications by Brossard included dictionaries, collections, and catalogues. Characteristics of his music were extensive crescendos in a single vocal piece, initiation of the violin sonata in France, and harmonies that can only be considered ordinary.

Lamentations or tenebrae were composed for the Matins services of Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Holy Week but were sung on the preceding evening. Each service consisted of three nocturnes and each nocturne was divided into three lessons. The Lamentations of Jeremiah were always sung during the three lessons of the first nocturne of each service. That makes nine tenebrae in all. Scarlatti however, set to music only six of them, all of which are sung on this new release. Five of the Lamentations are for soprano and the remaining one for tenor.

Fin du XVIe siècle, grand-duché de Toscane. Né nain, Ilario d'Orcia brille par son intelligence, sa vivacité d'esprit et sa soif de savoir. Moinillon, artiste, médecin ou ermite, il parcourt l'Europe alors que la Renaissance s'efface pour laisser place au mouvement baroque. Rien ne semble impossible et Ilario se rêve doge. …