Messe du Roi Soleil: The Sun King’s Mass
François-André Danican PHILIDOR (1652-1730)
Marche pour fifres et tambours
[0:43]
Jean-Adam GUILAIN (c.1680-1739)
Suite du troisième ton: Plein jeu [2:05]
Michel-Richard de LALANDE (1657-1726)
Exaltabo te Domine, S.66 [22:37]
François COUPERIN (1668-1733)
Messe à l’usage des Couvents: Dialogue sur les grands jeux [1:37]
Venite exultemus Domino
[4:21]
Messe à l’usage des Couvents: Tierce en taille [3:20]
Anon.
Communion de la Messe pour Saint Louis
[1:06]
Jean-Baptiste LULLY (1632-1687)
Exaudiat te Dominus
[17:11]
Chœur Marguerite Louise
Ensemble Marguerite Louise/Gaétan Jarry (organ)
rec. live, Chappelle Royale de Versailles, July 2018. DDD.
Texts and translations included.
CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES SPECTACLES CVS008
[53:11]
Les Grandes Eaux de Versailles: Musique des Fêtes Royales
2019
Extracts from recordings of music by Jean-Baptiste LULLY, François-André Danican
PHILIDOR,
Michel-Richard de LALANDE, Francesco CAVALLI (1602-1676), Marc-Antoine
CHARPENTIER (1643-1704), André CAMPRA (1660-1744), George Frideric
HANDEL (1685-1759), Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)
and others
King’s Consort/Robert King; Le Poème Harmonique/Vincent Dumestre, Collegium
1704/Václav Luks, Galilei Consort/Benjamin Chénier, Chœuer et Ensemble
Marguerite Louise/Gaétan Jarry.
CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES SPECTACLES CVS700
[68:27]
Two warnings: let me say at the outset that CVS008, while it contains
some fine music, is not
quite
what it claims to be on the cover, a Mass for Louis XIV, the Sun King. The
two works central to the programme, the large-scale grands motets by
Lalande and Lully may well have been performed as part of such a service,
but they do not constitute a setting of the Mass. François Couperin’s Venite exultemus Domino is a setting of the invitatory psalm for
Matins.
More seriously, I cannot recommend CVS700, the
latest (2019) edition of a series of releases with the title Les Grandes Eaux de Versailles offering snippets from other
recordings; formerly released on the Alia Vox, Alpha and Ambroisie labels,
some of these earlier albums are now download only. It’s always struck me
as rather poor value to sell what are in effect samplers at full price, no
less so now that the mantle has fallen upon the shoulders of the fairly new
Château de Versailles label. Costing a ridiculous £17.20 from one dealer,
some of the extracts are very short. Beautiful music to be sure, of which
more anon, but it’s all designed to encourage you to buy one of the CDs or
DVDs which have appeared to date. In which case, it’s best to stream this
album from
Naxos Music Library,
then choose the recording(s) that appeal.
One of the recordings included on the sampler is CVS008, the
subject of the main review. Prior to the
release by these forces of Les Arts Florissans earlier this year, my
last encounter with Chœur et Ensemble Marguerite Louise and Gaétan Jarry was
some time ago in the form of music by Charpentier and Boyvin on L’Encelade
ECL1403, welcomed in the strongest terms by Michael Cookson –
review.
That CD is not very widely available but it’s worth searching out; MC’s
review includes a link to Amazon UK and it can be streamed or downloaded,
with pdf booklet, from Qobuz.
I mentioned the recording of Les Arts Florissans in reviewing
another release on this label, Francesco Cavalli’s large-scale Mass of 1660
and other music on CVS006 –
review.
I promised then to catch up with some of the other recordings in the series and
can certainly report that I enjoyed Les Arts Florissans on CVS001,
as streamed, with pdf booklet, from
Naxos Music Library.
My only complaint is that, even with the addition of the 12-minute
excerpts from La Couronne des Fleurs, the album offers short value
for a premium-price product. (Incidentally, the same is true of the ‘Mass’
on CVS008.) The Harmonia Mundi recording of that work by the eponymous Les Arts
Florissants and William Christie is even shorter, at 40 minutes, but at
least it comes as a budget-price CD and download (HAF8901083, as little as
£4.99 in lossless sound from
uk.7digital.com,
NO booklet; £5.98 with booklet, or £5.40 special offer CD, from
Presto).
I imagine that the sampler CD is on sale at Versailles – there ais
even a Mandarin edition. If you bought it there as a souvenir, your money won’t
have been wasted if it leads you to one of the complete recordings on this
label, including the music for the Sun King on CVS008.
I’ve already said that the real selling point of the new recording comes
from the two grands motets. I had expected to find several
alternatives for each of these, but was surprised to see that this version
of the Lalande Exaltabo te Domine seems to be the only one
currently available – I tried all the variant spellings of the composer’s
name. Some very fine recordings of his other grands motets there are
– see my
recommendation
of one of the most recent, on Glossa, with several additional listings –
but none of this work. (An ancient Louis Frémaux recording on a BnF
download is of another work with the same opening words.)
That Glossa recording offers an all-Lalande programme, as does or another
recent album from Le Poème Harmonique and Vincent Dumestre. Does that make
them preferable to the new Versailles release? Both would make fine
introductions to the composer, as would an older Erato Veritas super-budget
twofer and an Alto budget-price single CD – all of which I mention with
approval in that Glossa review. But one or more of those recordings might
be better regarded as your next step after the new performance by the
Ensemble Marguerite Louise. There’s plenty of variety on the new CD and I
very much enjoyed hearing it.
It also gives an opportunity to compare and contrast the styles of these
composers. I don’t intend to take sides, because there are fine examples
here of the three major figures. I’ve already mentioned how I can foresee
this album encouraging greater exploration of Lalande and the same is true
of Couperin; the two short extracts from his organ mass for the use of
convents could well lead to a complete recording of that music, designed to
be played while the priest intones the words sotto voce.
It’s often coupled with the similar Messe pour les paroisses, for
ordinary parish use, as on an inexpensive 2-CD recording by Marie-Claire
Alain (Erato 2292454606, with Clérambault Suite du deuxième ton,
download only).
Though Lully had no official standing in Louis XIV’s royal chapel – his
duties as composer-in-ordinary involved the king’s private music – the grands motets which he composed were among its glories. In the case
of his Exaudiat te Dominus, there is one other recording, on Volume
3 of a very fine Naxos series of those grands motets from Le Concert
Spirituel and Hervé Niquet (8.554300, with O dulcissime Domine, Notus in Judæa, Laudate pueri and Benedictus –
4/4-star
review). For Colin Clarke, this brisk and exuberant account of Exaudiat te Dominus is the highlight of the Naxos recording and I’m
not about to disagree: I’ve yet to find a dud among the many recordings
which this team made for Naxos and other labels. The opening word exaudiat, may [the Lord] hear [you], pronounced in the French
manner, sounds almost like the word victoria, victory, so exuberant
is this performance.
The two performances are tracked slightly differently, but in all the
verses the Naxos recording is slightly faster, coming very close to
sounding hectic without actually doing so. Overall, I’m inclined to prefer
the slightly more measured account on the new recording, but the Naxos
would cost very little as a supplement, especially if downloaded.
This is the second recording of music for Louis XIV as recorded in
Versailles to have come my way recently – actually, it was the first, but
my chaotic system of working meant that I completed the other review first.
Though it, too, bears the Château de Versailles logo, it’s released by
Alpha. It actually dovetails neatly with CVS008 in that it contains three
more of the large-scale works composed by Lully for the chapel royal: Dies iræ, De profundis and Te Deum, performed by
Sophie Junker, Judith Van Wanroij, Matthias Vidal, Cyril Auvity, Thibaut
Lenaerts, Alain Buet and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur with the Millennium
Orchestra and Cappella Mediterranea directed by Leonardo García Alarcón
(ALPHA ALPHA444 or 307224). Though there are some other fine recordings of
these works, including from Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel on Naxos,
overall, as with the Messe du Roi Soleil, my inclination now is to
make the new recording my first choice.
The new Alpha and CVS008 both offer fine accounts of music associated with
Louis XIV’s chapel at Versailles. If you can afford to purchase only one,
subscribers to Naxos Music Library can stream the other, as well as Hervé
Niquet’s Naxos recordings of this repertoire – old friends which, if
superseded by these new Versailles recordings are still very well worth
hearing. With so many fine recordings of Lully and his contemporaries, the
problem now is one of choice. Forget my reservations about the
misleading title and Messe du Roi Soleil will give great pleasure.
Brian Wilson