Sartre

André Cardinal Destouches (1672-1749) was educated by the Jesuits and had a career as a Musketeer before resigning to study music with André Campra. His first ‘hit’ was the pastoral Issé in 1697, which was written for the court but immediately taken up by the Opéra in Paris. He rose to prominent positions in both contexts and Sémiramis was first performed in 1718. Influenced by the Italophile Campra, Destouches abandoned the traditional five-part string scoring of Lully and his followers and created a work that was perhaps too serious for its time: only now are we in a position to recognise his work as an important step along the road from the aesthetic of Lully to that of Rameau.

Mirare presents another fine recording by the talented ensemble Les Ombres, led jointly by group members Margaux Blanchard and Sylvain Sartre. Baroque music combines violence and gentleness, unity and plurality. This disc dedicated to the myth of Semele and Icarus combines music by Marin Marais, André Cardinal Destouches and George Frederic Handel.