Charpentier: Lecons de Ténèbres. Office du Mercredi Saint H.120, 117, 138, 126, 141, 131, 173

Track Listings
1. Avertantur Retrorsum    
2. Premiere Lecon    
3. Premiere Repons Seniores Populi    
4. Seconde Lecon    
5. Second Repons Tristis Est Anima Mea    
6. Troisieme Lecon    
7. Troisieme Repons Ecce Quomodo    
8. Psume 50 Miserere    

Charpentier: Lecons de Ténèbres. Office du Mercredi Saint H.120, 117, 138, 126, 141, 131, 173, Music, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Gerard Lesne, Catherine Greuillet, Caroline Pelon, Christopher Purves, Il Seminario Musicale, Baroque Motet, Choral, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Non-Mass Liturgical Service
Charpentier: Lecons de Tenebres. Office du Mercredi Saint H.120, 117, 138, 126, 141, 131, 173
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Beyond Praise ... Bewitching!
Charpentier: Lecons de Tenebres. Office du Mercredi Saint H.120, 117, 138, 126, 141, 131, 173

Manufacturer: Angel Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by CharpentierAll Works by Charpentier | Charpentier, Marc-Antoine | ( C ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Baroque (c.1600-1750) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
MotetsMotets | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:
  1. Charpentier: Te Deum [Hybrid SACD]

ASIN: B00000DNFG
Release Date: 2002-12-23

Tracks:

  1. Avertantur Retrorsum
  2. Premiere Lecon
  3. Premiere Repons Seniores Populi
  4. Seconde Lecon
  5. Second Repons Tristis Est Anima Mea
  6. Troisieme Lecon
  7. Troisieme Repons Ecce Quomodo
  8. Psume 50 Miserere

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Beyond Praise ... Bewitching! .......2004-10-22

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 - 1704): Lecons de ténèbres. Office du Mercredi Saint (Tenebrae for the Wednesday in Holy Week). Performed by Catherine Greuillet and Caroline Pelon (sopranos), Gérard Lesne (haute-contre = high tenor), Christopher Purves (basse-taille = baritone); Il Seminario Musicale (recorders, treble viols; bass viol; theorbo; violone; bassoon; chamber organ). Directed by Gérard Lesne. Recorded at the Abbaye de Fontevraud, France, in April 1994. Published 1995 by EMI France on the Virgin Classics label (7243 5 45107 2 4).Total time: 63'52".

This is one of those rare CD productions for which even Amazon's top evaluation of five stars seems stingy, for it achieves a level of 'perfection' (if such a thing is possible in such a subjective area as music) that merits distinction above and beyond the praise one would normally lavish on a successful recording. Let me try and justify this remark with some facts: Firstly, there is Charpentier's music. Over the last 30 years or so, there has been a revival of Baroque music which has gone hand in hand with the re-discovery of certain composers who had almost been forgotten. One of these was Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 - 1704), second in the 17th century French pecking order only to Lully. Charpentier's prolific output for the stage has been made known to a wider public chiefly through the efforts of William Christie. His sacred music has been slower to find interpreters, but first progress was made by René Jacobs and Philippe Herreweghe with recordings of motets. The 'Lecons de ténèbres' were written for Holy Week, there being in Catholic France a tradition of reading or singing passages from the Lamentations of Jeremiah on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before Easter. The most famous 'Lecons' were by Michel Lambert and Francois Couperin, but Charpentier, too, wrote quite a large amount of music for the services associated with these readings (which were sung not only by monks and nuns, but also by opera singers). Charpentier's miniatures are based on the original Gregorian melodies but combined with the Italianate style for which he was famed, the scores being carefully marked to show the singers how to perform the elaborate vocal decorations of the numerous melismas. The whole is given an instrumental accompaniment that can vary according to the availability of instruments and musicians. This is music of incredible high beauty.

Secondly, there is the performance and/or interpretation, which I can only describe as exquisite. Gérard Lesne, well-known for his natural-sounding countertenor, is here joined by baritone Christopher Purves and two sopranos, Catherine Greuillet (also a member of the 'Desmoiselles de Saint-Cyr' who produced the beautiful Charpentier CD 'Grace et grandeurs de la Vierge') and Caroline Pelon. They sing together and alternately in a way that both delights the senses and uplifts the soul, accompanied in a most sensitive way by Il Seminario Musicale, which here consists of well-known instrumental soloists (Pierre Hamon and Sébastien Marq, recorders; Philippe Pierlot, Ann-Marie Lasla and Sophie Watillon, viols; Pascal Monteilhet, theorbo; Bruno Cocset, violone; Claude Wassner, bassoon; and Jean-Charles Ablitzer, organ). The sound is delicate to the point of being bewitching, a treat for the ears.

Thirdly, there is the historical and musicological research which went into this recording and has yielded the two informative essays printed in the booklet, which also contains the full texts in Latin and in English, French and German plus all the information one could need about the instruments and about the recording venue, the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud.

And last but not least there is the superior sound engineering which yields a very realistic picture of what was happening during the performance. Congratulations to EMI France for this superb disc!

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