Rousset Directs Campra's Baroque Requiem
About the event
Christophe Rousset and his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques bring French music from around 1700 to life in an inimitable way. Grand works
French ensembles have formed the vanguard of early music for years. Christophe Rousset's Les Talens Lyriques certainly belongs to that vanguard. And for a program featuring grand works by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and André Campra, a top ensemble that truly understands the French language and musical culture is of great value. Charpentier's Missa Assumpta est Maria is considered one of his most beautiful masses. He presumably wrote the work in 1699. Charpentier had been employed as maître de musique at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris for just a year, a very prominent position.
Graceful expressiveness
The Mass, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, contains concertante elements following the Italian example, blended with the graceful expressiveness that characterizes the French Baroque. It forms a fitting 'prelude' to André Campra's Messe de Requiem, composed some twenty years later. A gentle Requiem Mass without Dies irae, and thus without hell and damnation. Inviting, hopeful, and sometimes even cheerful music by this master of the Grand Siècle.
